Rabbi  Isadore  Isaacsor 


IN  AID  OF   FAITH 


BY 


LYMAN    ABBOTT 


REVISED  AND   ENLARGED   EDITION 


NEW  YORK 

E.   P.    DUTTON    &    COMPANY 

31    WEST  TWENTY-THIRD   STREET 
I9OI 


COPYRIGHT, 
BX*¥-  P.  DUTXO^&.Cp. 

•  V       jige.  •  ;.«  "... 


Ubc  Iftnlcfeerbocfcer  ipreas,  IRew  lorfc 


X 


DEDICATION. 


TO    THE   FACULTY   AND    STUDENTS    OF    WELLESLEY    COLLEGE 

THIS    VOLUME    IS    DEDICATED, 

WITH    THE    PERMISSION    OF    THE    PRESIDENT, 

ALICE    E.    FREEMAN,    PH.D. 

THEIR  INTEREST  IN  SOME  OF  THE  THOUGHTS  EMBODIED  IN  THESE 

CHAPTERS,  WHEN  DELIVERED  IN  THE  FORM  OF 

A    COURSE    OF    LECTURES    IN    THEIR    COLLEGE    CHAPEL, 

INDUCED  ME  TO  PUBLISH  THEM  FOR  A  WIDER, 

THOUGH    I    CANNOT    HOPE,    FOR   A    MORE    RESPONSIVE    CIRCLE. 


943984 


PREFACE. 


THE  title  of  this  book  indicates  its  purpose.  It  is 
written  in  order  to  give  aid  to  those  who  desire  to 
hold  fast  to  their  faith,  but  find  intellectual  and  moral 
difficulties  in  so  doing.  There  is  a  considerable  class 
of  persons  in  the  community  who  have  no  conscious 
desire  for  spiritual  life,  who  are  very  willing  to  be  rid 
of  the  sanctions  imposed  by  a  belief  in  God  and  the 
future,  who  have  no  sense  of  sin  and  therefore  no 
desire  for  pardon,  no  sense  of  unworthiness  and 
therefore  no  desire  for  a  diviner  life,  to  whom  the 
rejection  of  Christianity,  with  its  hopes  and  its 
duties,  brings  no  regret.  This  book  is  not  addressed 
to  such.  It  does  not  aim  to  make  an  unwilling  con- 
vert ;  it  does  not  seek  to  convince  any  one  against 
his  will,  to  wring  a  verdict  by  force  of  logic  from  a 
reluctant  jury.  I  have  little  faith  in  polemical  theol- 
ogy ;  little  faith  in  the  possibility  of  convincing  any 
one  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  who  sees  nothing  in 
it  to  desire ;  still  less  faith  in  any  moral  advantage 
in  such  conviction,  even  if  it  can  be  produced.     Self- 

v 


VI  PREFACE. 

satisfied  sceptics  will  not  read  this  volume,  or  if  they 
attempt  to  do  so,  will  find  little  in  it. 

There  is  also  a  considerable  class  of  persons  whose 
faith  is  not  perplexed.  The  Christian  religion  pre- 
sents no  difficulties  to  them ;  the  system  of  doctrine 
which  they  have  inherited  from  their  ancestors  is 
adequate  and  satisfying;  they  are  either  ignorant  of 
the  course  of  modern  thought,  or  they  hold  religious 
truth  in  one  chamber  of  the  mind  and  philosophic  and 
scientific  truth  in  another  chamber  of  the  mind,  and 
never  allow  the  two  to  come  into  collision.  This 
somewhat  curious  mental  state  must,  I  think,  be  very 
common  in  those  who  hold  to  Roman  Catholic  theol- 
ogy. The  intelligent  Romanist  knows  that  there  is  a 
difference  between  animal  and  vegetable  substances ; 
that  the  wafer,  chemically  analyzed  before  consecra- 
tion, will  present  ocular  demonstration  of  its  vegetable 
nature;  that  if  it  is  submitted  to  the  same  chemical 
analysis  after  consecration,  the  same  ocular  demon- 
stration of  its  vegetable  character  will  be  afforded. 
Scientifically,  he  believes  that  the  bread  remains  bread 
after  consecration  as  before,  yet  religiously  he  believes 
that  it  is  mysteriously  changed  and  becomes  the  ver- 
itable body  of  the  Saviour.  I  am  not  unaware  of  the 
answer  which  Roman  Catholic  theologians  give  to 
this  difficulty  when  presented  to  them  :  but  to  most 
votaries  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  bowing  at 
the  presentation  of  the  host,  it  simply  does  not  pre- 
sent itself  at  all.     They  find  no  difficulty  in  holding 


PREFACE.  Vll 

scientifically  one  opinion  and  religiously  another 
opinion,  though  the  two  are  in  direct  conflict.  In  a 
somewhat  similar  manner  there  are  doubtless  many 
Protestants  who  read  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis 
without  feeling  the  least  mental  disturbance  or  ques- 
tioning in  consequence  of  the  revelations  of  modern 
science.  They  read  on  the  Sabbath  the  statement 
that  "  God  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth  in  six 
days  and  rested  on  the  seventh ;  "  they  read  in  the 
week  the  scientific  revelations  of  geology  concerning 
the  long,  slow  processes  by  which  the  world  was 
evolved  and  brought  into  a  habitable  condition  ;  and 
they  find  no  difficulty  in  receiving  and  holding  both 
views.  They  ask  for  no  explanation,  because  they 
do  not  collate  and  compare  their  scientific  opinion 
and  their  religious  faith.  So  I  have  known  Ortho- 
dox ministers  who  held  firmly  to  the  dogma  of  eter- 
nal punishment  in  its  most  distinct  form,  who  believed 
— I  do  not  say  professed  to  believe,  for  I  think  their 
intellectual  conviction  was  genuine  and  assured — that 
there  is  no  opportunity  to  exercise  a  saving  faith  in 
Christ  beyond  this  life,  and  no  hope  in  the  life  to 
come  for  one  who  has  not  exercised  such  a  saving 
faith  in  this  life,  and  yet  who  found  no  moral  or  in- 
tellectual difficulty  in  speaking  words  of  comfort  and 
hope  to  heart-broken  mothers  when  a  child,  grown  to 
maturity,  had  died  suddenly  without  any  evidence 
whatever  of  evangelical  repentance  and  faith.  Such 
ministers  are  not  to  be  charged  with  dishonesty ;  they 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

possess  minds  capable  of  holding  two  inconsistent 
views,  one  an  intellectual  and  theoretical  opinion,  the 
other  a  practical  and  sympathetic  sentiment,  and  they 
are  not  disturbed  by  the  inconsistency.  If  that  incon- 
sistency is  called  to  their  attention,  they  invent  or 
discover  some  sort  of  reconciliation  ;  but  unless  it  is 
called  to  their  attention  it  gives  them  no  concern. 
This  book  is  not  written  for  this  class  of  persons.  I 
have  no  desire  to  disturb  a  religious  faith  which  is 
undisturbed.  It  may  rest  on  false  foundations:  it 
may  be  alloyed  with  error.  If  so,  there  are  enough 
forces  at  work  in  the  community  to  shake  it  from  its 
false  foundations  and  to  burn  out  its  alloy — with  the 
possible  chance  of  burning  up  the  gold  also.  This 
work  of  the  destruction  of  falsehood — or  false  forms 
of  truth,  which  are  themselves  the  most  dangerous 
kind  of  falsehood — I  leave  to  others. 

But  there  are  also  a  great  many  persons  in  our  time 
whose  faith  is  perplexed.  They  are  spiritually  con- 
scious of  the  life  and  truth  obtained  by  their  fathers 
from  dogmatic  systems,  which  they  are  no  longer  able 
to  accept.  They  cannot  believe  what  the  preachers 
of  their  childhood  taught  them  from  the  pulpit,  and 
yet  they  cannot  willingly  surrender  the  life  which  grew 
up  under  that  teaching.  They  cannot  believe  in  the 
verbal  infallibility  of  the  Scriptures,  with  two  versions 
of  these  Scriptures,  possessing  equal  authority,  before 
them  ;  and  yet  they  cannot  surrender  their  faith  in  the 
Bible.     They  cannot  believe  in  the  scholastic  concep- 


PREFACE.  ix 

tion  of  a  God- man,  who  created  bread  as  a  God  and 
ate  it  as  a  man :  who  taught  as  a  God  and  was  wearied 
as  a  man  :  who  comforted  his  disciples  as  a  God  and 
sought  their  sympathetic  prayers  as  a  man  :  who  rose 
from  the  dead  as  a  God,  after  he  had  died  upon  the 
crosSr  as  a  man  :  and  yet  they  cannot  surrender  their 
faith  in  a  divine  Word  of  God,  who  translates  the  be- 
fore unutterable  divinity  into  communicable  form  and 
brings  him  into  the  life  of  man.  Their  moral  nature 
revolts  at  the  notion  of  an  angry  Deity,  who  demands 
for  so  much  sin  so  much  suffering,  and  lets  the  guilty 
escape  only  on  condition  that  an  innocent  one  will 
suffer ;  and  yet  they  cannot  consent  to  abandon  that 
inexplicable  peace  of  mind  which  comes  from  a  sense 
of  sin  not  merely  forgiven,  but  laid  upon  another  and 
almost  literally  borne  away  into  the  darkness.  This 
book  is  written  to  aid  such  minds.  It  is  written  for 
those  whose  spiritual  nature  craves  spiritual  truth, 
whose  intellectual  nature  revolts  against  intellect- 
ual falsehood,  and  the  harmony  of  whose  nature  is 
such  that  they  must  hold  all  spiritual  truth  in  intel- 
lectual forms  which  are  not  irrational  and  self-contra- 
dictory. It  is  not  so  much  an  attempt  to  prove  the 
truths  of  Christianity  by  logical  processes  as  to  state 
them  in  thinkable  form.  It  is  not  an  attempt  to  con- 
struct a  new  theology,  still  less  is  it  polemically  di- 
rected against  an  old  theology :  though  in  some 
cases,    for  the  sake  of  greater   distinctness,  I    have 


X  PREFACE. 

contrasted  the  new  statement  with  the  old.  It  is  an 
attempt  to  state  the  truth,  which  is  involved  in  all 
theological  systems  which  have  ever  taken  strong 
hold  upon  human  hearts  in  modern  thought  forms. 
It  is  not  so  much  philosophical  as  it  is  personal.  It 
is  the  record  not  so  much  of  studies  pursued  in  books, 
as  of  experiences  wrought  in  my  own  spirit  and  in  my 
own  thinking.  I  cannot  inherit  truth  :  I  have  to  ac- 
quire it.  I  have  worked  my  own  way  through  the 
forest  to  the  light,  only  to  find,  generally,  that  I  had 
followed,  unconsciously,  a  path  which  others  had 
blazed  long  before  me.  Some  things  which  I  once 
doubted  are  no  longer  doubtful :  some  things  which 
were  once  traditional  beliefs  I  have  cast  off  as  errors  : 
but  perhaps  a  still  greater  number  of  opinions  have 
changed  their  form,  retaining  their  substance,  and 
have  become  in  their  new  aspect  profitable  and  vital 
convictions.  In  this  book  I  have  done  little  more 
than  endeavor  to  tell  those  who  are  beset  by  similar 
difficulties  the  mental  process  by  which  I  have  cast  off 
some  old  notions  and  some  old  doubts,  and  reached 
stronger  and  clearer  convictions  respecting  certain 
fundamental  truths  of  the  Christian  religion. 

Spiritual  truth  can  never  be  accurately  stated  in 
intellectual  forms.  It  is  vital,  not  philosophical :  and 
something  is  always  lost  in  the  attempt  to  translate  it 
from  the  realm  of  experience  into  that  of  intellect. 
No  moral  philosophy  can  fathom  a  mother's  love ;  no 


PREFACE.  XI 

theological  philosophy  can  fathom  the  Divine  love. 
The  experience  of  shame  and  humiliation  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  sin  transcends  all  definitions  of  sinfulness; 
the  experience  of  help  and  peace  and  joy  in  conscious 
fellowship  with  God  transcends  all  definitions  of  re- 
demption. All  creeds  are  attempts  to  define  the  un- 
definable  ;  attempts  to  state  what  transcends  all  state- 
ment. Hence,  while  spiritual  truth  remains  eternal, 
the  dogmatic  definitions  necessarily  change.  If  any 
one  could  have  assumed  to  make  a  final  interpretation 
of  spiritual  experience,  surely  it  might  have  been  the 
Apostle  Paul :  but  it  is  Paul  who  says  "  We  know  in 
part  and  we  prophesy  in  part."  As  Scripture  re- 
mains the  same  in  the  Hebrew,  the  Septuagint,  the 
Vulgate,  Luther's  Translation,  the  Authorized  Ver- 
sion and  the  New  Revision,  so  spiritual  experience  re- 
mains the  same,  whether  the  form  of  statement  be  that 
of  Calvin's  "Institutes"  or  Wesley's  Sermons.  As 
changes  in  language  require  new  translations  because 
of  new  verbal  forms,  so  changes  in  intellectual  con- 
ditions require  new  translations  into  new  philosophical 
or  dogmatic  forms.  It  is  my  hope  that  the  contents 
of  this  little  book,  because  they  are  modern  in  their 
form,  may  be  aids  to  faith  for  some  who  desire  spirit- 
ually to  hold  fast  to  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints,  but  who  find  it  impossible  honestly  to  hold  fast 
to  some  of  the  dogmatic  forms  into  which  those  saints 
have  translated  it,  and  who  cannot  sacrifice  honesty 


Xll  PREFACE. 

even  to  spiritual  happiness  ;  and  this  hope  is  somewhat 
encouraged  by  the  service  which  the  lines  of  thought 
here  developed  seem  to  have  rendered  in  a  previous 
use,  though  in  different  form,  in  the  pulpit,  upon  the 
lecture  platform,  and  in  the  columns  of  the  Christian 
Union. 

Lyman  Abbott. 

Cornwall-on-the-Hudson,  N.  Y. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  THIRD   EDITION. 


ANEW  edition  of  this  volume  is  called  for. 
Looking  at  the  title-page,  which  shows  that 
nearly  ten  years  have  passed  since  the  last  "  revised 
and  enlarged  "  edition  was  printed,  I  wonder  if  in 
these  ten  years  any  changes  in  my  faith  have  taken 
place  such  that  honesty  demands  a  revision  or  re- 
writing of  the  volume.  I  re-read  it  and  send  it  forth 
again  without  altering  a  word.  Had  it  been  a 
volume  in  theology,  it  is  probable  that  some  modi- 
fications, perhaps  some  material  modifications, 
would  have  been  required.  But  it  is  an  expression 
of  faith,  not  of  theology,  and  the  faith  to  which  it 
gives  expression,  years  of  reflection  and  study  have 
only  strengthened.  I  hold  more  firmly  than  ever 
before  to  the  faith  herein  expressed,  in  the  Infinite 
Power  and  Universal  Presence,  in  the  Divine  Image 
of  that  Power  and  Presence  in  Jesus  the  Messiah, 
in  the  Forgiveness  of  Sins  brought  to  the  world  of 
men  through  Christ's  Sacrifice,  in  the  Book  whose 
story  culminates  in  his  life,  teaching,  and  passion,  in 
the  inheritance  of  the  children  of  God  which  that 


Xlll 


XIV  PREFACE   TO   THE   THIRD    EDITION. 

Book  of  Promise  offers  to  all  men,  in  the  Resurrec- 
tion of  the  Dead,  and  in  the  Life  Everlasting.  I 
am  devoutly  thankful  for  the  assurances  which  have 
come  to  me  that  this  little  book  has  helped  to  clarify 
and  confirm  this  faith  in  others,  and  gladly  send  it 
forth  again  upon  its  errand,  with  the  prayer  that  it 
may  in  the  future  render  this  service  more  efficiently 
than  it  has  ever  done  in  the  past. 


Lyman  Abbott. 


The  Knoll,  Cor nwall-on- Hudson, 
June,  igoi. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

Preface  v 

Preface  to  the  Third  Edition    .     .     .   xiii 

I. — The  Alternative  Creed 15 

II. — The  Unbelief  of  Unbelievers      ...     23 

III. — The  Basis  of  Faith 31 

IV. — The  Testimony  of  Consciousness      .     .     42 

V. — The  Infinite  Power 52 

VI. — The  Universal  Presence 67 

VII. — The  Image  of  God 75 

VIII. — Come  and  See 86 

IX.— "Ye  Know  Him" 99 

X. — The  Forgiveness  of  Sins 107 

XI. — The  Law  of  Sacrifice 116 

XII. — The  Book  of  Promise 126 

XIII. — The  Earthly  Inheritance      ....     139 

XIV. — The  Spiritual  Inheritance      ....  152 

XV. — The  Resurrection  of  the  Dead     .     .     168 

XVI. — Eternal  Death 183 

XVII. — The  Eternal  Life 191 


IN   AID  OF   FAITH 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE    ALTERNATIVE    CREED. 

CHRISTIANITY  is  a  philosophy,  a  history,  and 
a  life.  All  three  phases  of  Christianity  are  illus- 
trated by  its  most  venerated  and  venerable  symbol, 
the  Apostles'  Creed.  The  first  paragraph  is  philo- 
sophic— "  I  believe  in  God  the  Father  ;  "  the  second 
is  historic — "  and  in  Jesus  Christ  his  only  begotten 
Son,  who  was  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary  ;  "  the  third  is 
vital — "  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  holy  catho- 
lic church,  the  communion  of  saints,  the  forgiveness  of 
sins."  The  first  offers  an  interpretation  of  nature,  the 
second  of  history,  the  third  of  human  experience. 
Existence  is  a  mystery.  Schumann's  "  Warum  ?  " 
does  but  musically  interpret  the  questioning  of  every 
thoughtful  heart :  "  Who  am  I  ?  What  am  I  for  ? 
How  came  I  here  ?  Under  what  law  or  lawgiver  am 
I  ?  What  forces  help  to  make  and  what  to  mar  me  ? 
And  what  is  my  destiny  ?"  To  each  of  these  ques- 
tions Christianity  has  a  definite  answer  ready.  It 
replies :  "  You  are  a  child  of  God ;  put  here  for  char- 


l6  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

acter  building ;  by  your  Father ;  under  his  authority ; 
dependent  on  him  for  success ;  and  with  immortal, 
incorruptible,  eternal  life  your  true  destiny."  These 
questions  are  deep  ones ;  they  go  to  the  very  roots 
of  life.  These  answers  are  sublime  ones,  too  large 
to  be  easily  accepted.  For  myself  I  cannot  think  of 
accepting  them  on  the  authority  of  any  man  or  body 
of  men,  living  or  dead,  past  or  present,  speaking  from 
the  platform  or  from  the  tomb.  They  may  help  me 
to  my  conclusions ;  they  cannot,  must  not,  shall  not 
form  those  conclusions  for  me. 

But  in  considering  these  answers  to  these  questions 
I  naturally  look  to  see  what  alternative  is  offered, 
what  other  answers  are  proposed.  These  are  the  an- 
swers of  Christian  faith  ;  those  of  unbelief  it  is  not  so 
easy  to  ascertain.  For  belief  is  organized  and  has  its 
creeds,  while  unbelief  is  inorganic  and  has  none. 
There  are  no  symbols  of  infidelity,  and  one  must 
search  through  many  an  author,  and  for  himself  put 
together  their  various  articles  into  one  connected 
whole.  When  at  times  the  profound  mystery  of  ex- 
istence again  appalls  me,  and  the  tremendous  posi- 
tiveness  of  Christianity  arouses  anew  all  the  old  ques- 
tioning, I  recur  to  this  creed  of  the  creedless,  and 
consider  what  alternative  it  offers.  There  are  diffi- 
culties—  great  difficulties — in  the  Christian  faith  ; 
the  difficulties  of  unbelief  seem  to  me,  on  a  candid 
comparison,  vastly  greater. 


THE   ALTERNATIVE   CREED.  \*J 

Unbelief  starts  out  with  the  assumptions,  sometimes 
explicitly  asserted,  sometimes  tacitly  assumed,  that 
all  our  knowledge  is  derived  directly  from  our  senses, 
or  indirectly  by  logical  processes  and  from  the  material 
furnished  by  the  senses.  They  bring  in  the  threads; 
the  reason  weaves  them  into  a  pattern  ;  the  web  is 
knowledge.  That  there  is  any  power  which  sees  the 
invisible,  any  capacity  for  directly  and  immediately 
grasping  the  unseen  world,  it  either  openly  scouts  or 
quietly  ignores.  The  benediction,  "  Blessed  are  they 
that  have  not  seen,  and  yet  have  believed,"  Professor 
Clifford,  for  example,  characterizes  as  "  profoundly 
immoral,"  and  declares  that  it  would  be  impossible 
that  it  should  be  ascribed  to  a  true  prophet  or  a 
worthy  leader  of  humanity,  by  "  any  man  who  clearly 
felt  and  recognized  the  duty  of  intellectual  honesty, 
of  carefully  testing  every  belief  before  he  received  it, 
and  especially  before  he  recommended  it  to  others."1 
Recognition  of  a  spiritual  sense,  which  directly  and 
immediately  perceives  the  invisible  world,  is  not,  so 
far  as  I  know,  characterized  as  "  immoral  "  by  any 
other  prophet  of  unbelief,  but  it  is  passed  by  in  silence 
as  an  antique  superstition,  or  benignly  smiled  at  as  a 
childish  fantasy.2 

Starting  with  this  assumption,  unbelief  begins  its 

1  "Lectures  and  Essays,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  218. 

2  I  shall  not  attempt  to  give  authorities  for  the  statements  in  these 
pages,  except  when  I  quote  verbatim  from  some  author ;  they  could 
easily  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  but  would  encumber  the  page  with 
foot-notes. 


1 8  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

quest  of  the  universe  for  a  God;  the  investigation  is 
honest,  earnest,  sincere,  protracted ;  the  result  is  neg- 
ative. There  is  no  God  to  be  seen ;  that  is  very  clear 
— and  perhaps  some  other  hypothesis  will  do  as  well 
to  account  for  all  that  is  seen.  On  this  point  it  is  true 
the  investigators  are  not  agreed  among  themselves, 
for  the  sectarian  differences  are  as  great  among  skep- 
tics as  among  Christians,  though,  since  their  convic- 
tions are  not  as  vital,  their  strifes  are  not  as  bitter. 
The  Deist  thinks  there  probably  is  a  God,  but  one 
who  is  by  no  means  perfect  in  wisdom,  power  or  be- 
nevolence ;  the  Agnostic,  that  there  is  an  invisible 
power  behind  visible  nature,  but  it  is  the  unknown 
and  forever  unknowable  ;  the  Positivist  disowns  even 
an  unknown  God  and  bids  us  substitute  the  worship 
of  humanity ;  while  the  Atheist  rejoices  to  see  the 
Great  King  dethroned  and  man  reclaimed  from  his 
greatest  weakness,  the  superstition  of  worship  and  the 
restraints  of  divine  law.  "A  Being  of  great  but 
limited  power,  how  or  by  what  limited  we  cannot 
even  conjecture :  of  great  and  perhaps  unlimited  in- 
telligence, but  perhaps  even  more  narrowly  limited 
than  his  power ;  who  desires  and  pays  some  regard 
to  the  happiness  of  his  creatures,  but  who  seems  to 
have  other  motives  of  action  which  he  cares  more  for, 
and  who  can  hardly  be  supposed  to  have  created 
the  universe  for  that  purpose  alone :  such  is  the 
Deity  whom  Natural  Religion  points  to,  and  any 
idea  of  God  more  captivating  than  this  comes  only 


THE   ALTERNATIVE   CREED.  1 9 

from  human  wishes  or  from  the  teaching  of  real  or 
imaginary  revelation."  '  This  faith  of  the  Deist  goes 
too  far  for  the  Agnostic,  who  brings  back  from  his 
quest  only  the  assurance  that  "amid  the  mysteries 
which  become  the  more  mysterious  the  more  they  are 
thought  about,  there  will  remain  the  one  absolute 
certainty  that  he  is  ever  in  the  presence  of  an  Infinite 
and  Eternal  Energy  from  whom  all  things  proceed."2 
But  some  remnant  of  faith  is  allowed  to  participate  in 
even  this  barren  conclusion ;  and  the  Positivist  ad- 
vances a  step  beyond.  He  laughs  at  the  unknowable, 
the  everlasting  naught,  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  (Xn) 
of  his  too  credulous  companions,  and  gives  Man,  spelt 
with  a  capital  M,  for  our  admiring  reverence.3  "The 
dim  and  shadowy  outlines  of  the  super-human  deity," 
he  tells  us,  "  fade  slowly  away  from  before  us,  and 
as  the  mist  of  his  presence  floats  aside  we  perceive 
with  greater  and  greater  clearness  the  shape  of  a  still 
grander  and  nobler  figure — of  Him  who  made  all  Gods 
and  shall  unmake  them.  From  the  dim  dawn  of  his- 
tory, and  from  the  inmost  depth  of  soul,  the  face  of 
our  Father  Man  looks  out  upon  us  with  the  fire  of 
eternal  youth  in  his  eyes,  and  says,  '  Before  Jehovah 
was,  I  am.'  "  4  But  even  this  requires  faith,  for  only 
a  perception   of  the  invisible  can   discover  in  man 

1  John  Stuart  Mill  :  "Three  Essays  on  Religion,"  p.  194. 

2  Herbert  Spencer,  in  "  Nineteenth  Century,"  Vol.  XV.,  p.  12. 

3  Frederic  Harrison,  in  "Nineteenth  Century,"  Vol.  XV.,  p.  505. 

4  Professor  Clifford,  "  The  Ethics  of  Religion,"  "Fortnightly  Re- 
view," July,  1877. 


20  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

greatness  or  nobleness,  or  present  from  his  history  an 
object  before  which  reverence  can  bow.  And  so  we 
finally  reach  the  culmination  of  this  creed  of  the 
creedless  in  the  repudiation  of  all  reverence  whatever 
for  God  or  man,  law  or  person,  in  the  confession  of 
this  faith  :  "  Religion,  instead  of  a  prerogative  of  hu- 
man nature,  appears  as  a  weakness  which  adhered  to 
mankind  chiefly  during  a  period  of  childhood,  but 
which  mankind  must  outgrow  on  attaining  maturity."1 

Two  things,  then,  are  clear  to  me.  First,  that 
there  is  no  alternative  between  the  Christian  religion 
and  no  religion  at  all.  These  successive  steps  follow 
each  other  with  an  inexorable  logic.  I  must  accept 
substantially  Mr.  Mill's  position  that  "  any  idea  of 
God  more  captivating"  than  his  imperfect  Deity 
comes  only  from  the  teaching  of  either  real  or 
imaginary  Revelation  ;  and  if  I  agree  with  him  in 
denying  to  man  all  capacity  to  know  the  invisible  by 
direct  spiritual  perception,  I  must  follow  on  to  agree 
with  Herbert  Spencer  that  this  imperfect  Deity  is  un- 
known and  unknowable,  and  with  Frederic  Harrison 
that  an  Infinite  (Xn)  is  not  an  object  of  intelligent 
worship.  As  little  can  I  unite  with  him  and  Comte 
and  Professor  Clifford  in  the  worship  of  Man.  In  vain 
I  attempt  to  join  this  little  band  of  unworshiping  wor- 
shipers. My  soul  refuses  to  substitute  for  the  "  Our 
Father  "  of  my  childhood  the  adoration  of  Humanity. 

Our  brethren  who  are  upon  the  earth,  hallowed  be 

1  Strauss,  "  The  Old  Faith  and  the  New." 


THE   ALTERNATIVE    CREED.  21 

our  name  ;  our  kingdom  come  ;  our  will  be  done  on 
earth  ;  for  there  is  no  heaven.  We  must  get  us  this 
day  our  daily  bread  ;  we  neither  forgive  nor  are  for- 
given, for  Law  knows  no  forgiveness;  we  fear  not 
temptation,  for  we  deliver  ourselves  from  evil;  for 
ours  is  the  kingdom,  and  ours  is  the  power,  and 
there  is  no  glory  and  no  forever.     Amen. 

Can  such  a  prayer  as  this  satisfy  me  ?  No  !  I  can- 
not utter  it.  The  alternative  is  between  a  revealed 
religion  and  no  religion  at  all ;  between  the  Christian's 
faith  in  the  Christian's  God,  and  no  faith,  no  God,  no 
religion. 

It  is  equally  clear  that  this  modern  skepticism  is  not 
modern  at  all.  It  is  ancient  paganism — hardly  in  a  new 
dress — only  in  a  new  name.  "  Mr.  Spencer's  'Energy,' 
says  Frederic  Harrison,  "  has  no  analogy  with  God. 
It  is  Eternal,  Infinite,  and  Incomprehensible ;  but 
still  it  is  not  He,  but  it."  It?  Where  have  I  seen 
this  before  ?  I  look  back  across  the  centuries,  and, 
behold  !  the  modern  faith  in  an  Eternal  It  is  but  the 
echo  of  the  paganism  of  the  Persian  poet  of  seven 
centuries  ago. 

"  We  are  no  other  than  a  moving  row 
Of  magic  Shadow  shapes  that  come  and  go 
Round  with  this  Sun  -Illumed  Lantern  held 
In  Midnight  by  the  Master  of  the  Show. 

'*  Important  Pieces  of  the  Game  He  plays 
Upon  this  Checker-board  of  Nights  and  Days  ; 
Hither  and  Thither  moves  and  checks  and  slays, 
And  one  by  one  back  in  the  closet  lays. 


22  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

"  The  Ball  no  question  makes  of  Ayes  and  Noes, 
But  Right  and  Left  as  strikes  the  Player  goes, 
And  He  that  tossed  you  down  into  the  Field 
He  knows  about  it  all— He  knows — He  knows. 

"  The  Moving  Finger  writes  ;  and  having  writ 
Moves  on  ;  Nor  all  your  Piety  and  Toil 
Shall  turn  it  back  to  cancel  half  a  line, 
Nor  all  your  tears  wash  out  a  word  of  it. 

"  And  that  inverted  Bowl  they  call  the  Sky, 
Whereunder  crawling,  cooped,  we  live  and  die, 
Lift  not  your  hands  to  it  for  help — for  It 
As  impotently  rolls  as  you  or  I."  * 

Frederic  Harrison  and  Herbert  Spencer  do  but  re- 
peat the  pagan  philosophy  of  Omar  Khayyam,  as  he 
repeated  that  of  Buddha  and  Confucius.  The  Eternal, 
Infinite,  and  Incomprehensible  It  is  not  a  new  Divin- 
ity. The  alternative  of  the  Christian  creed  is  the 
creed  of  an  ancient  paganism  risen  from  the  dead. 
I  say  this  not  to  cast  obloquy  upon  it,  but  only  for 
clearness'  sake.  The  real  alternative  is  between 
Christianity  and  paganism — nothing  more,  nothing 
less.      This  defines  the  issue. 

In  a  second  chapter  I  shall  try  to  indicate  what  be- 
yond this  is  involved  in  this  alternative. 

1  Rubaiyat  of  Omar  Khayyam. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  UNBELIEF  OF  UNBELIEVERS. 

THE  notion  that  all  our  knowledge  is  derived  from 
the  visible  and  tangible  universe,  and  concerns 
only  the  seen  and  that  which  by  our  reason  we  derive 
from  the  seen — in  one  word,  rationalism — not  only 
gives  us  no  basis  for  belief  in  a  Father-God,  it  gives  no 
basis  for  a  high  and  hopeful  life.  For  after  we  have 
searched  the  universe  with  our  telescope  and  our  spec- 
troscope, and  found  no  visible  God,  we  search  the 
human  body  with  our  scalpel  and  our  microscope, 
and  find  no  visible  soul.  We  find  muscles,  and 
nerves  and  tissues,  but  neither  thought,  nor  feeling, 
nor  anything  that  thinks  and  feels.  And  so  the 
same  process  that  results  in  an  Eternal,  Infinite  "  It  " 
in  the  universe  results  in  a  temporal  and  finite  "  it " 
in  man.  And  the  skeptic  brings  back  from  his  re- 
search one  of  two  conclusions  :  either  that  what  we 
call  thought  and  feeling  are  but  the  production  of  the 
nervous  fluid,  as  electricity  is  the  result  of  electric 
conditions,  or  heat  an  effect  of  the  union  of  carbon 
and  oxygen  ;  or  that  man  is  but  a  succession  of  phan- 
tasmagoria, and  thought  and  feeling  are  but  drops  in 

23 


24  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

an  endless  river  in  perpetual  flow.  "  What  we  call 
the  operations  of  the  mind,"  says  Huxley,1  "are 
functions  of  the  brain,  and  the  materials  of  conscious- 
ness are  products  of  cerebral  activity.  Cabanis  may 
have  made  use  of  crude  and  misleading  phraseology 
when  he  said  that  the  brain  secretes  thought  as  the 
liver  secretes  bile  ;  but  the  conception  which  that 
much-abused  phrase  embodies  is,  nevertheless,  far 
more  consistent  with  the  fact  than  the  popular  notion 
that  the  mind  is  a  metaphysical  entity,  seated  in  the 
head,  but  as  independent  of  the  brain  as  a  telegraph 
operator  is  of  his  instrument."  "The  mind,"  says 
Hume,  "  is  a  kind  of  theatre,  where  several  percep- 
tions successively  make  their  appearance,  pass,  repass, 
glide  away,  and  mingle  in  an  infinite  variety  of  pos- 
tures and  situations.  There  is  properly  no  simplicity 
in  it  at  one  time,  no  identity  in  different  times,  what- 
ever natural  propensity  we  may  have  to  imagine  that 
simplicity  and  identity.  The  comparison  of  the  the- 
atre must  not  mislead  us.  They  are  the  successive 
perceptions  only  that  constitute  the  mind;  nor  have  we 
the  most  distant  notion  of  the  place  where  these 
scenes  are  represented,  or  of  the  materials  of  which  it 
is  composed."2  Thus  according  to  the  creed  of  the 
unbeliever,  there  is  no  I.  I  am  not.  There  is  only 
a  mechanism  which  produces  effects  which  I  am 
pleased   to   call  myself;  or   only  a  stage  on  which 

1  Huxley's  "  Hume,"  p.  78. 

2  Quoted  in  Huxley's  "  Hume,"  p.  166. 


THE  UNBELIEF  OF  UNBELIEVERS.      2£ 

shadows  come  and  go,  banks  between  which  an 
endless  succession  of  separated  drops  flow  in  their 
inevitable  course. 

But  if  there  is  no  I,  if  what  seems  to  be  personality- 
is  but  a  subtle  product  of  nervous  forces,  or  a  con- 
scious succession  of  separate  experiences,  there  is  and 
can  be  no  immortality.  There  is  nothing  to  be  im- 
mortal. When  the  electrical  machine  is  worn  out, 
there  are  no  more  sparks  ;  when  the  wood  is  consumed 
and  the  last  glowing  embers  have  faded  into  ashes, 
there  is  no  more  fire.  If  what  we  call  self  is  but 
a  machine,  then,  when  it  has  used  up  its  vital  forces, 
there  is  an  end ;  if  it  is  but  "  a  kind  of  theatre," 
then,  when  the  theatre  is  burned  up,  the  play  must 
stop.  If  life  is  to  go  on,  some  other  machine  must  be 
constructed,  some  other  theatre  built.  This  is  not  a 
mere  phantasy  of  the  philosopher  in  his  closet ;  it  is 
the  confession  of  a  comfortless  creed  in  time  of  sorrow. 
When  grief  stands  looking  into  the  tomb  there  is  no 
angel  there  to  say,  "  Why  seek  ye  the  living  among 
the  dead  ?  he  is  not  here ;  he  is  risen."  Unbelief  has 
no  purer  and  more  unselfish  apostle  of  its  creedless 
creed  than  Felix  Adler,  of  New  York  City.  He 
attacks  no  man's  brighter  and  happier  faith  ;  he  seeks 
to  rob  no  man  of  his  hope  in  God  and  in  the  eternal 
future;  he  believes  in  men,  and  with  a  hopeless 
heroism  he  pushes  on  his  philanthropic  work  for  men. 
But  when  Dr.  Damroscli  dies,  and  the  coffin  lies  before 
the  vast  audience  which  fills  the  Metropolitan  Opera 


26  IN  AID   OF  FAITH. 

House  from  floor  to  dome,  and  Felix  Adler  is  called 
upon  to  speak  to  the  solemn  and  sorrowing  hearts  in 
that  vast  assembly,  this  is  all  his  message  :  "  I  have 
come  to  lay  upon  this  bier  three  wreaths.  The 
wreath  of  success:  he  had  just  grasped  it  when 
death  paralyzed  his  arm,  and  it  dropped  from  his 
helpless  hand.  I  pick  it  up  and  lay  it  on  his  bier. 
The  wreath  of  fame  :  his  name  we  will  cherish  though 
he  is  gone ;  he  is  no  more,  but  the  memory  of  his 
honored  life  lives  on.  The  wreath  of  an  earthly  immor- 
tality :  we  may  not  see  his  face  again,  but  his  influ- 
ence survives  him,  and  shall  reproduce  his  spirit  in  our 
earthly  lives."  I  condense  into  a  sentence  an  oration 
faultless  in  its  rhetoric ;  but  I  believe  I  have  pre- 
served all  the  essential  consolation  which  it  contained. 
And  it  is  but  a  barren  consolation  beside  the  promise, 
"In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions;  I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  you  ;  and  if  I  go  and  prepare  a 
place  for  you,  I  will  come  again,  that  where  I  am 
there  ye  may  be  also ;"  or  beside  the  triumphant 
welcome  to  a  death  no  longer  grim  :  "  This  corrup- 
tible must  put  on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  must 
put  on  immortality.  Death  is  swallowTed  up  in  vic- 
tory. O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  grave, 
where  is  thy  victory  ?" 

But  if  there  is  no  I,  no  immortal  part,  nothing  but 
physical  mechanism,  or  an  impersonal  succession  of 
events,  there  are  and  can  be  no  great  laws  of  right 
and  wrong.     Nothing  is  left  but  the   expedient  and 


THE   UNBELIEF   OF   UNBELIEVERS.  27 

inexpedient,  the  pleasant  and  unpleasant,  the  wise 
and  foolish,  or  at  best  the  useful  and  the  harmful. 
Certain  things  produce  happiness,  we  will  call  them 
right ;  certain  things  produce  unhappiness,  we  will 
call  them  wrong.  But  right  as  right  and  wrong  as 
wrong,  have  disappeared,  if  we  are  logical  must  dis- 
appear, from  our  calculations.  Garfield  is  only  a 
good  machine,  and  Guiteau  a  bad  machine.  The 
one  we  will  put  in  the  place  of  honor,  like  a  valuable 
clock ;  the  other  we  will  put  under  ground,  like  a 
dangerous  dynamite  clock  ;  but  there  is  left  no  room 
for  true  commendation  of  the  one,  or  real  condemna- 
tion of  the  other.  The  skeptic  who  fights  against 
this  irresistible  conclusion  of  his  own  skepticism  can 
say  nothing  better  than  that  "  the  first  principle  of 
natural  ethics  is  the  sole  and  supreme  allegiance  of 
conscience  to  the  community."1  The  skeptic  who, 
with  poorer  conscientiousness  but  better  logic,  follows 
the  latter  to  its  irresistible  conclusion,  casts  away  the 
laws  of  right  and  wrong  altogether.  "Were  one,"  says 
Hume,  u  to  go  round  the  world  with  the  intention  of 
giving  a  good  supper  to  the  righteous  and  a  sound 
drubbing  to  the  wicked,  he  would  frequently  be  em- 
barrassed in  his  choice,  and  would  find  the  merits  and 
demerits  of  most  men  and  women  scarcely  amount  to 
the  value  of  either."2     The  martyrs  who  have  borne 

1  Professor  Clifford:  "  Right  and  Wrong;  the  Scientific  Ground  of 
their  Distinction,"  "Fortnightly  Review,"  December,  1875. 
2 Huxley's  "Hume,"  p.  175. 


28  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

unflinchingly  the  fire  and  the  rack,  the  heroes  who 
marked  the  snows  ofValley  Forge  with  their  bleeding 
feet,  the  later  heroes  whose  graves  our  tears  still 
keep  green,  the  mothers  whose  unwearied  devotion 
is  the  saving  grace  of  weak  and  wayward  childhood — 
the  world's  heroes  and  heroines,  whom  history  honors, 
and  nations  celebrate  in  stone  and  poets  in  verse  and 
dramatists  in  story,  deserve  not  so  much  of  us  as  a 
good  supper:  this  is  the  last  conclusion  of  that  skep- 
ticism which  begins  by  denying  to  man  even  a  brute's 
capacity,  and  ends  by  denying  to  him  more  than  a 
brute's  virtue. 

No  God,  or  none  that  can  be  known,  or  worshiped 
or  loved  ;  no  soul,  nothing  but  a  succession  of  experi- 
ences proceeding  under  an  inevitable  law  ;  no  immor- 
tality ;  nothing  but  a  future  influence  as  useless  as  our 
lives,  since  it  proceeds  from  shadows,  and  only  shad- 
ows are  to  be  influenced  by  it;  no  eternal  laws  of  right 
and  wrong;  no  blame  for  guilt,  or  praise  for  patient,  self- 
denying  service ;  no  religion,  and  no  true,  high,  and 
hopeful  life,  for  either  the  here  or  the  hereafter — this 
is  the  creed  of  the  creedless,  the  belief  of  unbelievers,  for 
which  we  are  asked  to  give  up  the  faith  and  worship  of 
our  fathers.  It  is  true  that  all  unbelievers  do  not  hold 
all  the  articles  of  this  creed  of  unbelief.  Perhaps 
very  few  do.  But  that  is  because  they  are  not  logical. 
He  who  accepts  the  premises — no  power  in  me  to  per- 
ceive the  invisible — cannot  logically  stop  short  of  the 
conclusion :  no  God,  no  soul,  no  immortal  future,  no 


THE  UNBELIEF  OF  UNBELIEVERS.      29 

right  and  wrong — for  these  are  all  invisible.  When 
we  have  thrown  faith  away,  logic  can  give  us  for  a 
God  only  a  hypothetical  It ;  for  a  conscious  personal- 
ity, a  succession  of  phantasmagoria  ;  for  a  triumphant 
immortality,  Nirvana ;  and  for  Right  and  Wrong, 
eternal  and  immutable,  a  supreme  allegiance  of  con- 
science (if  there  be  a  conscience)  to  the  community. 
I  look  over  the  edge  of  a  precipice.  I  see  clinging 
to  the  barren  rock,  on  the  zigzag  path  that  leads  down 
the  precipitous  side,  men  and  women  seeking  to  find 
rest  for  their  restless  souls,  but  seeking  in  vain.  Tem- 
porary footholds  there  are ;  eternal  and  true  resting- 
place  is  none  between  the  top  and  the  bottom  ;  be- 
tween the  full  faith  of  the  Christian  in  the  Christian's 
Father- God,  and  the  absolute  negation  of  all  faith,  the 
sorrowful  contentment  of  a  mind  which  has  emptied 
itself  of  all  hope,  and  is  at  rest  only  because  it  has 
ceased  to  strive  against  a  fate  which  is  as  inexorable 
as  it  is  cruel.  From  below  comes  the  sorrowful  con- 
fession of  hope  stifled  and  love  lost :  "  It  cannot  be 
doubted  that  theistic  belief  is  a  comfort  and  a  solace 
to  those  who  hold  it,  and  that  the  loss  of  it  is  a  very 
painful  loss.  It  cannot  be  doubted,  at  least  by  many 
of  us  in  this  generation,  who  either  profess  it  now,  or 
received  it  in  our  childhood  and  have  parted  from  it 
since,  with  such  searching  trouble  as  only  cradle-faiths 
can  cause.  We  have  seen  the  spring  sun  shine  out 
of  an  empty  heaven,  to  light  up  a  soulless  earth  ;  we 
have  felt  with  utter  loneliness  that  the  Great  Compan- 


30  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

ion  is  dead.  Our  children,  it  may  be  hoped,  will 
know  that  sorrow  only  by  the  reflex  light  of  a  won- 
dering compassion."  x  From  above  comes  the  song 
of  the  soul,  still  walking  in  mystery,  the  mind  ofttimes 
distraught,  but  the  spirit  at  rest  because  with  God  : 

"  I  see  a  wrong  that  round  me  lies, 
I  feel  the  guilt  within  ; 
I  hear,  with  groan  and  travail  cries, 
The  world  confess  its  sin. 

"  Yet,  in  the  maddening  maze  of  things, 
And  tossed  by  storm  and  flood, 
To  one  fixed  stake  my  spirit  clings: 
I  know  that  God  is  good."  2 

1  Professor  Clifford:   "  Influence  upon  Morality  of  a  Decline  in  Re- 
ligious Belief."     Lectures  and  Essays,  Vol.  II.  p.  247. 

2  Whittier  :  "  The  Eternal  Goodness." 


CHAPTER   III. 


THE    BASIS    OF    FAITH. 


WITH  the  fundamental  assumption  of  modern 
unbelief,  that  we  know  only  the  visible  and 
the  tangible,  I  take  issue.  Our  deepest  convictions 
are  not  arrived  at  by  logical  processes.  The  truths 
of  which  we  are  surest  cannot  be  demonstrated. 
They  are  known.  They  are  not  proved ;  they  are 
perceived.  Indeed,  I  am  inclined  to  go  further  ;  to 
assert  that  aesthetic  truths  are  always  aesthetically 
perceived,  moral  truths  morally  perceived,  and  spirit- 
ual truths  spiritually  perceived  ;  that  no  truth  is  re- 
ligious which  depends  upon  a  logical  demonstration, 
that  no  truth  has  any  moral  quality  unless  it  com- 
mends itself  to  the  moral  sense  of  moral  men  upon 
the  bare  presentation  of  it.  It  is  a  religious  truth 
that  it  is  wrong  to  steal,  and  no  man  is  truly  religious 
who  does  not  instantly  apprehend  it  without  argu- 
ment ;  but  it  is  not  a  religious  truth  that  God  wrote 
the  command,  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal,"  on  stone  and 
gave  it  to  Moses  ;  that  is  a  historical  truth.  A  man 
may  be  very  irreligious  and  believe  it,  or  very  re- 
ligious  and  disbelieve    it.     So    the   belief  that   the 

3* 


32  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

character  and  life  of  Jesus  Christ  as  portrayed  in  the 
four  Gospels  has  a  divine  quality  in  it  is  a  religious 
truth ;  and  no  man  is  or  can  be  truly  religious  who 
does  not  perceive  that  divineness,  and  feel  affections 
of  love  and  reverence  stirred  within  him  by  a  study 
of  that  life  and  character.  But  the  truth  that  such 
an  one  actually  lived  and  suffered  and  died  is  a  his- 
torical truth,  depending  upon  historical  evidence ;  a 
man  may  be  utterly  irreligious  and  believe  it,  as  in- 
numerable instances  in  the  community  show,  and  a 
man  might  be  profoundly  religious  and  disbelieve  it, 
though  his  disbelief  would  certainly  indicate  an  ex- 
traordinary ignorance  or  an  extraordinary  lack  of 
mental  capacity. 

It  is  as  true  that  the  Fifth  Symphony  of  Beethov- 
en is  beautiful  as  it  is  that  the  sum  of  two  sides  of  a 
triangle  is  always  greater  than  the  third  side ;  but 
the  one  truth  is  not  conveyed  to  the  mind  by  the 
same  process  which  conveys  the  other.  The  geome- 
trical truth  is  demonstrated ;  the  musical  truth  is 
perceived.  If  one  doubts  the  geometrical  proposi- 
tion, if  he  will  give  you  his  attention,  and  he 
possesses  any  powers  of  reasoning,  you  can  demon- 
strate it  to  him.  If  he  doubts  the  musical  proposi- 
tion there  is  only  one  way  to  commend  it  to  him  ;  he 
is  lacking  in  musical  perception,  and  must  receive  a 
musical  education.  Music  is  not  an  external  fact ;  it 
is  an  internal  life  produced  by  an  external  fact.  It 
is    not  a  vibration  in  the  air,  it  is  a  pulsation   of  the 


THE    BASIS    OF    FAITH.  33 

soul ;  and  if  the  organ  or  the  orchestra  does  not  pro- 
duce any  pulsation  in  the  soul  there  is  nothing  to  be 
said,  except  that  the  nature  is  deficient.  There  is, 
as  we  say,  no  "  ear  for  music ;"  we  do  not  mean  that 
there  is  no  external  organ,  but  no  inward  apprecia- 
tion. Moral  truths  are  in  the  same  category.  They 
are  not  demonstrated.  Right  and  wrong  are  ulti- 
mate facts.  If  the  utilitarian  tells  me  that  is  right 
which  produces  the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest 
number,  I  ask  him  why  it  is  any  better  or  more  right 
to  produce  happiness  than  to  produce  misery,  and 
we  are  as  far  from  the  solution  of  the  problem  as 
before.  There  is  no  answer  to  the  question  but 
Faber's : 

"  And  right  is  right,  since  God  is  God, 
And  right  the  day  must  win. 
To  doubt  would  be  disloyalty, 
To  falter  would  be  sin." 

We  do  not  believe  that  truth,  justice,  purity,  love, 
are  right,  and  their  opposites — falsehood,  cruelty, 
sensuality,  and  selfishness — are  wrong,  because  from 
a  broad  deduction  we  have  come  to  the  scientific 
conclusion  that  the  one  produce  desirable  and  the 
other  undesirable  effects.  If  lying  produced  happi- 
ness it  would  still  be  lying ;  and  when  sensuality 
produces  pleasure,  it  still  remains  sensuality.  The 
man  who  argues  for  excess  is  not  to  be  argued  with ; 
he  must  be  either  coerced  or  morally  convicted.  The 
man  who  scoffs  at  honesty  cannot  be  set  right  by  de- 
3 


34  IN   AID    OF  FAITH. 

bate ;  we  simply  keep  our  hand  on  our  pocket-book 
till  we  are  out  of  his  presence.  A  singular  and  elo- 
quent statement  of  this  truth  is  given  by  Mr.  Hux- 
ley ;  singular,  because  it  is  in  striking  contrast  with 
all  that  precedes  in  the  volume.  In  his  sketch  of 
Hume  '  he  has  followed  his  master  and  swept  away, 
somewhat  cavalierly,  all  faith  in  God,  in  immortality, 
and  even  in  a  personal  and  spiritual  existence,  be- 
cause there  is  no  adequate  evidence  in  visible  phenom- 
ena to  demonstrate  these  faiths  ;  but  when  Hume  goes 
on,  applying  the  same  process  of  reasoning  to  moral 
distinctions,  and  belittling,  if  he  does  not  absolutely 
deny,  the  real  and  immutable  difference  between  right 
and  wrong,  Huxley  recoils,  and  thus  defines  the  ba- 
sis of  moral  belief: 

"  In  whatever  way  we  look  at  the  matter,  morality 
is  based  on  feeling,  not  on  reason ;  though  reason 
alone  is  competent  to  trace  out  the  effect  of  our 
actions,  and  thereby  dictate  conduct.  Justice  is  in- 
cluded in  the  love  of  one's  neighbor  ;  and  goodness  is 
a  kind  of  beauty.  The  moral  law,  like  the  law  of 
physical  nature,  rests  in  the  long  run  upon  instinc- 
tive intuitions,  and  is  neither  more  nor  less  *  innate  ' 
and  *  necessary  '  than  they  are.  Some  people  cannot 
by  any  means  be  got  to  understand  the  first  book  of 
Euclid  ;  but  the  great  truths  of  mathematics  are  no 
less  necessary  and  binding  on  the  great  mass  of  man- 
kind.    Some  there  are  who  cannot  feel  the  difference 

i  Huxley's  "  Hume:"  English  Men  of  Letters.     (Harper  &  Brothers.) 


THE   BASIS   OF  FAITH.  35 

between  the  Sonata  Apassionata  and  Cherry  Ripe ; 
or  between  a  gravestone  cutter's  cherub  and  the 
Apollo  Belvedere ;  but  the  canons  of  art  are  none 
the  less  acknowledged.  While  some  there  may  be, 
who,  devoid  of  sympathy,  are  incapable  of  a  sense  of 
duty ;  but  neither  does  their  existence  affect  the 
foundation  of  morality.  Such  pathological  devia- 
tions from  true  manhood  are  merely  the  halt,  the 
lame,  and  the  blind  of  the  world  of  consciousness ; 
and  the  anatomist  of  the  mind  leaves  them  aside,  as 
the  anatomist  of  the  body  would  ignore  abnormal 
specimens." 

The  Christian  believer  will  notice  as  a  curious  and 
suggestive  circumstance  that  Mr.  Huxley,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  morally  incapable,  uses  almost  the  very 
terms  which  the  New  Testament  uses  in  characteriz- 
ing the  spiritually  incapable,  whom  it  describes  as 
the  lame,  the  halt,  the  blind,  and  the  dead.  For, 
according  to  the  New  Testament,  spiritual  truth  rests 
upon  the  same  foundation  as  aesthetic  and  ethical 
truth.  Yes,  goodness  is  a  kind  of  beauty ;  and  if 
one  cannot  see  that  beauty  in  Christ  it  is  because  he 
is  among  the  blind  of  the  world  of  consciousness. 
The  prophet  Isaiah  laments  this  blindness  in  the 
people  of  Israel :  "  There  is  no  beauty  in  him  that 
we  should  desire  him;  "  and  Christ  himself,  about  to 
depart,  and  promising  his  disciples  another  Comfort- 
er, even  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  adds :  "  Whom  the 
world  cannot  receive  because  it  seeth  him  not  [he  is 


36  IN    AID    OF   FAITH. 

not  capable  of  visible  demonstration],  neither  know- 
eth  him  [the  world  is  not  capable  of  spiritually  per- 
ceiving him]  :  but  ye  know  him,  for  he  dwelleth  with 
you  and  shall  be  in  you." 

In  all  higher  realms  life  is  the  basis  of  knowledge. 
We  believe  because  we  are.  Only  the  man  with  a 
soul  of  music  perceives  musical  truth  :  only  a  man 
with  a  soul  of  art  perceives  artistic  truth ;  only  a  man 
with  a  soul  of  goodness  perceives  truths  of  goodness ; 
and  only  a  man  with  a  spiritually  developed  nature 
perceives  spiritual  truths.  The  basis  of  belief  is  with- 
in us,  not  without ;  and  the  truths  are  known  instantly 
when  they  are  presented  to  us.  They  are  not  labor- 
iously arrived  at  by  processes  of  argumentation.  I 
can  easily  find  arguments  outside  myself  to  buttress 
my  religious  faith,  and  I  sometimes  need  them.  I  can 
easily  find  evidences  outside  myself  to  test  my  relig- 
ious convictions,  and  I  often  need  to  apply  them,  lest 
I  mistake  my  inclination  fdr  my  judgment,  and  my 
educated  habits  for  my  spiritual  intuitions.  But  when 
I  ask  myself  what  is  the  real  basis  of  my  religious  be- 
lief in  God,  in  immortality,  in  Christ,  in  the  Bible,  I 
find  that  basis  is  my  own  consciousness,  receiving  and 
responding  to  the  invisible  truth :  and  when  I  begin 
to  ask  what  is  the  real  basis  of  that  belief  in  the  great 
body  of  Christians,  most  of  whom  have  neither  the 
education,  the  time  nor  the  books  for  independent 
philosophical  investigation,  I  see  that  this  same  inward 
witness  is  the  one  which  attests  to  them  the  truth, 


THE   BASIS    OF   FAITH.  37 

which  they  are  often,  for  that  reason,  puzzled  to  at- 
test to  others.  A  French  deist  argues  with  a  Christian 
friend  at  considerable  length  against  immortality.  The 
friend  replies  in  a  sentence  :  "  Probably  you  are  right. 
I  presume  you  are  not  immortal;  but  I  AM."  He  has 
expressed  in  that  sentence  the  foundation  of  my  faith 
in  my  own  immortality.  Immortality  is  in  a  true 
sense  a  present  fact.  I  am  immortal  now  ;  not  mere- 
ly shall  be ;  though  the  shall  be  is  projected  into  tne 
future  necessarily  out  of  the  I  am.  The  immortal 
nature  is  within  ;  and  I  feel  its  strivings,  as  the  un- 
fledged bird  the  growing  power  of  flight  before  he 
spreads  his  wings  and  launches  from  his  nest  upon 
the  invisible  and  untried  element  on  which  without  a 
fear  he  trusts  himself.  I  study  the  life  and  character 
of  Christ  as  portrayed  in  the  four  Gospels.  Its  divine- 
ness  grows  upon  me  as  I  study  ;  not  only  no  other 
life  to  be  compared  to  it,  but  no  ideal  conception  of 
life  which  I  can  form  but  fades  before  the  brighter 
glory  of  this  reality.  If  my  neighbor  does  not  see, 
feel,  recognize,  know,  the  divineness  in  the  picture,  I 
can  as  little  prove  to  him  that  he  is  wrong  and  I  am 
right,  as  I  can  prove  the  beauty  of  a  primrose  to  poor 
Peter  Bell,  or  the  motherhood  in  Raphael's  cartoon  to 
the  friend  at  my  side,  to  whom  it  seems  but  a  painted 
commonplace.  If  motherhood  does  not  look  out  of 
those  divine  eyes  into  his  there  is  no  more  to  be  said ;  I 
can  neither  see  for  him  nor  make  him  see.  My  atheistic 
friend  asks  me,  Why  do  you  believe  in  God  ?     What 


38  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

can  I  answer  him  but  by  asking  him  another  ques- 
tion :  Why  do  you  believe  in  your  mother  ?  "I  have 
seen  my  mother."  I  beg  pardon.  You  have  never 
seen  your  mother.  You  have  seen  the  eyes,  the 
ears,  the  brow,  the  mouth  ;  but  they  are  not  mother. 
Else  why,  when  the  form  is  prostrate,  and  you  look 
in  vain  into  the  eyes  that  never  before  failed  to  look 
love  back  again,  and  press  your  lips  upon  the  lips 
that  never  before  failed  to  answer  kiss  with  kiss,  do 
you  cry  for  "  Mother  !  mother  I"  in  a  despairing  en- 
deavor to  bring  her  back  to  you  ?  What  you  see 
and  touch  is  not  what  you  love.  No  !  It  is  the  pa- 
tience of  love  that  nursed,  and  tended,  and  watched, 
and  feared,  and  hoped,  that  is  mother,  and  that  no 
eye  ever  saw  nor  hand  ever  touched.  But  no  mother 
ever  gave  clearer  counsel  to  her  child,  or  greater 
strength,  or  sweeter  comfort,  or  purer,  deeper  inspi- 
ration than  the  invisible  Father  bestows  upon  his 
children  in  the  hour  of  their  need.  The  witness  of 
childhood  to  the  presence  and  power  of  mother-love 
is  not  more  uniform  nor  more  songful  than  the  testi- 
mony of  God's  children  singing  through  the  centu- 
ries :  "  He  restoreth  my  soul ;  he  leadeth  me  in  the 
paths  of  righteousness  for  his  name's  sake;  yea,  though 
I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I 
will  fear  no  evil,  for  thou  art  with  me,  thy  rod  and 
thy  staff  they  comfort  me."  The  basis  of  belief  is 
the  same  in  both  cases ;  it  is  the  basis  of  experi- 
ence. 


THE   BASIS    OF   FAITH.  39 

If  any  one  imagines  that  I  am  declining  or  evading 
the  demand  that  the  Christian  show  a  reasonable 
ground  for  the  hope  that  is  in  him,  and  am  substituting 
an  appeal  to  the  sentiments  and  emotions,  he  entirely 
misapprehends  my  meaning.  The  emotions  cannot 
be  excited  without  some  object  to  excite  them.  The 
soul  cannot  love,  admire,  reverence,  without  some  ob- 
ject, real  or  imaginary,  for  its  love,  its  admiration,  its 
reverence.  It  must  have  either  a  perception  or  a 
conception.  The  existence  of  homes  is  itself  a  con- 
tinuous and  perpetual  testimony  to  the  reality  of 
something  in  man  more  than  the  material  organi- 
zation. The  existence  of  worship  is  in  like  and  equal 
measure  a  continuous  and  perpetual  testimony  to 
something  in  this  universe  more  than  nature.  If  an 
unhappy  human  waif  cynically  declares  that  there  is 
no  love  in  life,  though  he  has  no  experience  of  love, 
yet  he  might  be  appealed  to,  to  consider  the  wealth 
of  domestic  affection,  and  to  reflect  on  the  mere  phe- 
nomena of  domesticity,  as  a  demonstration  that  man 
is  something  more  than  a  manikin,  and  wife  and  mo- 
ther something  more  than  a  marble  or  a  canvas  coun- 
terfeit of  womanhood.  And  so,  if  he  declares  that 
there  is  no  truth  in  faith,  no  reality  in  worship,  he 
may  be  appealed  to,  though  he  has  no  experience  of 
either,  to  recognize  as  a  philosopher  some  real  cause 
for  the  phenomena  of  faith  and  worship,  and  to  see  in 
this  substantially  universal  experience  of  human  hearts 
a  witness  to  the  reality  of  a  personal  God  whom  oth- 


40  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

ers,  more  happily  endowed,  or  more  wisely  educated, 
or  more  truly  receptive  and  unprejudiced  than  him- 
self, perceive  by  spiritual  apprehension.  The  evi- 
dence of  the  real  personality  of  and  the  lovableness 
in  God  is  precisely  the  same  in  kind,  and  quite  as 
great  in  degree,  as  the  evidence  of  the  true  person- 
ality of  and  the  lovableness  in  man. 

If  one  say,  with  John  Stuart  Mill,  that  he  has  no 
such  spiritual  perception,  and  therefore  declines  to 
accept  it  as  a  witness  of  spiritual  verities,1  I  can  only 
answer,  in  the  words  of  Huxley,  that  such  as  he  are 
merely  •'  the  halt,  the  lame,  and  the  blind  of  the 
world  of  consciousness  ;  and  the  anatomist  of  the 
mind  leaves  them  aside,  as  the  anatomist  of  the  body 
would  ignore  abnormal  specimens,"  For  this  religi- 
ous instinct  is  not  a  peculiar  gift  of  peculiar  prophets 
or  a  peculiar  race.  It  was  more  highly  developed 
among  the  Hebrews  than  among  any  other  ancient 
people ;  but  it  was  no  more  their  monopoly  than  art 
was  a  monopoly  with  Greece,  or  law  with  Rome.     It 

1  "  When  no  claim  is  set  up  to  any  peculiar  gift,  but  we  are  told 
that  all  of  us  are  capable  as  the  prophet  of  seeing  what  he  sees,  feeling 
what  he  feels,  nay,  that  we  actually  do  so,  and  when  the  utmost  ef- 
fort of  which  we  are  capable  fails  to  make  us  aware  of  what  we  are 
told  we  perceive,  this  supposed  universal  faculty  of  intuition  is  but 

"  '  The  dark-lantern  of  the  spirit, 

Which  none  see  but  those  who  bear  it !' 

and  the  bearers  may  fairly  be  asked  to  consider  whether  it  is  not 
more  likely  that  they  are  mistaken  as  to  the  origin  of  the  impressions 
in  their  minds,  than  that  others  are  ignorant  of  the  very  existence  of 
an  impression  in  theirs." 


THE    BASIS    OF    FAITH.  41 

was  richly  manifested  in  Isaiah,  Paul,  Augustine, 
Wesley :  but  Isaiah,  Paul,  Augustine,  Wesley,  would 
have  had  no  power  among  their  fellows  if  there  had 
not  been  the  same  capacity  in  smaller  measure  in  the 
audiences  to  whom  they  spoke,  and  the  readers  to 
whom  they  still  speak.  The  religious  perception  is 
far  more  common  than  art  perception  ;  the  capacity 
to  know,  honor,  and  love  God  is  far  more  widely 
found  than  the  capacity  to  appreciate  music.  In- 
deed, it  would  be  quite  within  bounds  to  say  that 
in  the  world  of  humanity  those  who  have  no  ap- 
parent power  to  perceive  the  invisible  divine,  and 
no  spontaneous  impulse  to  reverence  it,  are  fewer  in 
number  than  those  who  lack  the  organs  of  sight  and 
hearing,  and  that  the  testimony  to  the  reality  of  a 
God,  directly  and  immediately  though  spiritually  per- 
ceived, is  quite  as  uniform  as  the  testimony  to  the 
reality  of  a  physical  world  by  the  senses  o(  sight  and 
hearing. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE   TESTIMONY    OF   CONSCIOUSNESS. 

IF  any  metaphysician  should  chance  to  read  these 
pages  —  a  very  unlikely  contingency  —  he  will 
criticise  this  use  of  the  word  "consciousness."  It  is 
therefore  proper  to  say  that  I  use  it  in  a  popular,  not 
a  scholastic,  sense,  because  there  is  no  better  word  at 
hand  to  express  to  unscholastic  readers  my  meaning. 
I  use  it  to  express  the  mental  phenomena  within  us, 
contrasted  with  the  natural  phenomena  without,  as  in 
the  phrase  "  the  world  of  consciousness."  The  story- 
teller says:  "I  suddenly  awakened  with  the  conscious- 
ness of  some  one  in  my  room,"  meaning  with  an  in- 
ward sense  of  a  presence  the  evidence  of  which  was 
so  subtle  that  it  eluded  any  analysis.  Our  religious 
faith  rests  on  consciousness,  on  an  inward  sense. 
This  is  not,  however,  equivalent  to  saying  that  the 
basis  of  our  religious  belief  is  different  from  the  basis 
of  any  other  belief.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  identical. 
All  our  beliefs  rest  on  our  consciousness,  or,  if  the 
metaphysician  prefers,  on  our  experience.  The  only 
difference,  if  difference  there  be,  between  our  relig- 
ious and  our  scientific  belief  is  that  our  religious  be- 
42 


THE   TESTIMONY   OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.  43 

lief  rests  somewhat  more  immediately  and  directly 
thereon. 

We  know  only  what  takes  place  within  us ;  we 
conclude  what  takes  place  without  us.  All  knowledge 
of  phenomena  outside  ourselves  is  deduced  from  phe- 
nomena within  ourselves.  I  am  writing  this  para- 
graph on  a  piece  of  white  paper,  resting  on  a  library 
table.  How  do  I  know  this  ?  Because  a  picture  of  the 
white  paper  and  the  library  table  is  produced  on  the 
retina  of  the  eye,  and  conveyed  by  the  optic  nerve  to 
the  brain,  and  so  to  the  mind,  and  because  an  im- 
pression of  hardness  in  the  paper  and  the  table  is  pro- 
duced upon  the  hands  and  arms,  and  conveyed  by 
their  nerves  to  the  brain,  and  so  to  the  mind.  If 
the  nerves  were  cut  there  would  be  no  impression  of 
hardness ;  if  the  retina  were  destroyed  there  would 
be  no  impression  of  whiteness.  I  knoiv  positively 
and  absolutely  that  such  an  impression  is  produced 
within  me ;  I  am,  in  popular  phrase,  conscious  of  it. 
I  conclude  that  certain  external  things,  namely,  white 
paper  and  a  table,  have  produced  them.  The  latest 
hypothesis,  possibly  I  should  say  conceit,  of  physical 
science  is  that  all  matter  is  only  a  form  of  force.  The 
cyclone  cuts  its  way  through  the  forest  as  though  it 
were  a  scythe :  it  is  nothing  but  impalpable  air  in 
rapid  motion.  And  it  is  now  suggested  that  what 
we  call  matter  is  only  impalpable  and  infinitesimal 
particles  in  rapid  motion,  a  series  of  infinitely  minute 
and    rapid    vortices,  a   combination   of  infinitesimal 


44  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

whirlwinds.  Whether  this  is  anything  more  than  a 
conceit  or  not  it  is  immaterial  now  and  here  to  in- 
quire ;  true  or  false,  it  equally  well  illustrates  the  truth 
that  scientific  men  recognize  the  fact  that  external 
phenomena  may  be  something  very  different  from 
what  they  seem ;  that  while  our  consciousness  in  re- 
porting to  us  impressions  of  color  and  of  density  is 
not  at  fault,  our  deductions  respecting  the  nature  of 
the  external  objects  which  produce  those  impressions 
may  be  entirely  at  fault.  A  simpler  illustration  may 
perhaps  serve  better.  You  say,  "  I  see  stars." 
What  do  you  mean  ?  You  may  have  looked  up  into 
the  heavens  on  a  winter's  night  and  seen  its  stellar 
glory ;  you  may  have  fallen  on  the  ice  and  struck  the 
back  of  your  head.  In  either  case  you  "  see  stars. " 
The  interior  experiences  are  analogous,  though  the 
external  phenomena  are  not ;  in  the  one  case  you 
conclude  luminaries  are  over  your  head,  in  the  other 
case  ice  beneath  your  feet. 

Thus  all  our  knowledge,  historical,  geographical, 
scientific,  rests  in  the  last  analysis  on  consciousness 
— our  own  or  that  of  others  accepted  by  us.  We 
believe  that  our  inward  experiences  have  truthfully 
reported  and  correctly  interpreted  to  us  the  outward 
world.  It  is  true  that  the  report  is  not  always  accu- 
rate, nor  the  interpretation  always  correct.  The 
brain  sometimes  plays  pranks  with  us.  We  are  sub- 
ject to  illusions.  In  vivid  dreams,  in  insanity,  in  de- 
lirium, the  mind  is  conscious  of  persons  and  events 


THE   TESTIMONY   OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.  45 

which  have  no  outward  reality.  In  ordinary  life,  if 
the  phenomenon  is  unusual,  we  require  a  second 
observation,  or  we  test  one  sense  by  calling  in  another 
sense  to  confirm  or  contradict  it,  or  we  appeal  to 
another  witness  to  see  whether  his  brain  makes  the 
same  report  and  gives  the  same  interpretation.  But 
the  general  testimony  of  consciousness  is  accepted  as 
trustworthy  ;  we  believe  its  reports,  and  act  upon 
them.  We  assume  that  its  testimony  within  of  ob- 
jects without  is  truthful,  and  we  habitually  and  un- 
hesitatingly accept  and  act  upon  it.  If  it  is  a 
habitual  liar  we  can  know  almost  nothing ;  for  all  our 
knowledge  assumes  that  truth  is  the  law  and  illusion 
the  exception. 

Now,  we  are  conscious  of  an  invisible  world  with- 
in us,  just  as  we  are  conscious  of  a  visible  world  with- 
out us.  The  testimony  to  the  one  is  as  uniform  as 
the  testimony  to  the  other.  No  amount  of  subtle  rea- 
soning can  satisfy  the  practical  man  that  life  is  an  illu- 
sion, a  dream,  a  false  show,  and  that  there  is  no  visible, 
physical  universe,  only  a  delusive  impression  of  one. 
As  little  can  any  amount  of  skeptical  subtlety  con- 
vince the  practical  man  that  there  is  no  reality  in  the 
invisible  universe,  in  the  world  of  thought  and  senti- 
ment, in  moral  principle  and  human  affection.  He 
is  conscious  of  the  one  as  of  the  other;  as  conscious 
of  the  one  as  of  the  other  ;  as  uniformly  conscious  of 
the  one  as  of  the  other.  He  does  not  more  clearly 
see  the  form  of  wife  and  mother  then  he  feels  the  in- 


46  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

visible  pulsations  of  a  wife's  and  a  mother's  love. 
Belief  in  both  cases  is  produced  by  a  consciousness 
within  him ;  he  concludes,  by  a  deduction  which  it  is 
equally  impossible  either  to  analyze  or  to  defy,  that 
this  consciousness  is  produced  by  phenomena — 
phenomena  in  the  one  case  physical,  in  the  other 
case  spiritual.  On  the  truthfulness  of  consciousness 
as  reporter  and  interpreter  of  material  phenomena  all 
science  depends ;  on  its  truthfulness  as  reporter  and 
interpreter  of  spiritual  phenomena  all  government, 
commerce,  society,  domesticity,  in  a  word,  all  that 
we  call  life,  depends.  If  it  be  not  true  witness,  if, 
taking  its  testimony  in  the  aggregate,  we  cannot  act 
upon  it  with  confidence,  there  is  an  end  to  all  living 
and  all  thinking,  and  we  are  mere  molecules,  bound 
together  neither  in  social  organism  by  spiritual  laws, 
nor  even  in  physical  organism  by  material  laws.  The 
anarchy  in  the  one  case  is  as  inevitable  and  absolute 
as  in  the  other. 

Now,  our  religious  belief  rests  on  the  testimony  of 
this  same  witness.  As  the  consciousness  of  the  out- 
ward is  not  more  universal  than  that  of  the  inward, 
so  the  testimony  to  the  reality  of  human  love  and 
life  is  not  more  uniform  than  the  testimony  to  a 
Divine  Spirit  in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being.  Atheists  there  are,  misanthropes  there  are  ; 
but  not  more  of  the  one  than  of  the  other.  On  the 
whole,  there  are  probably  fewer  men  in  the  world  who 
disbelieve  in  God  than  who  disbelieve  in  man.     God 


THE   TESTIMONY   OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.  47 

is  not  an  hypothesis,  like  the  ether,  invented  to  account 
for  phenomena.  He  is  a  reality ;  rather  let  me  say 
he  is  the  Eternal  and  Immutable  Reality,  and  we 
know  him  directly  and  immediately.  Carlyle  is  scout- 
ed as  an  unbeliever.  He  seems  to  me  to  have  fol- 
lowed his  spiritual  instincts  but  a  little  way,  and  then 
halted.  But  Carlyle  has  borne  characteristic  tes- 
timony to  the  truth  I  am  trying  here  to  express,  that 
God  is  not  an  hypothesis,  but  a  fact,  whom  we  know 
by  an  invisible  sense  as  directly  and  immediately  as 
we  know  any  fact  of  nature  or  of  life. 

u  But  above  all  things  proof  oi  a  God  ?  A  probable 
God  !  The  smallest  of  finites  struggling  to  prove  to  it- 
self :  that  is  to  say,  if  we  will  consider  it,  to  picture  out 
and  arrange  within  itself,  and  include  within  itself,  the 
Highest  Infinite,  in  which  by  hypothesis  it  lives  and 
moves  and  has  its  being  !  This  we  conjecture  will  one 
day  seem  a  much  more  miraculous  miracle  than  that 
negative  result  it  has  arrived  at,  or  any  other  result 
a  still  absurder  choice  might  lead  it  to.  He  who  in 
some  singular  Time  of  the  World's  History  was  re- 
duced to  wander  about,  in  stooping  posture,  with  pain- 
fully constructed  sulphur  match  and  failing  rushlight 
(as  Gowkthrapple  Naigeon),  or  smoky  tar-link  (as 
Denis  Diderot),  searching  for  the  Sun,  and  did  not  find 
it ;  were  he  wonderful  and  his  failure ;  or  the  singular 
Time  and  its  having  put  him  on  that  search  ?"  ' 

1  Carlyle's  Miscellanies  :  Diderot.     Chapman's  and  Hall's  Edition, 
page  290. 


48  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

Consider,  too,  what  I  have  already  suggested,  that  a 
Christian's  faith  rests  on  the  concurrent  consciousness 
of  many  witnesses.  If  here  and  there  is  a  man  who 
cannot  find  the  sun  by  looking  for  it  with  his  petty 
rushlight,  the  great  majority  of  mankind  live  in  its 
light,  and  become  conscious  of  its  presence  whenever 
they  turn  their  thoughts  toward  it. 

A  number  of  years  ago  I  was  awakened  suddenly 
at  night  by  feeling  a  hand  upon  my  throat,  and  an- 
other under  my  pillow  groping  for  my  watch.  I 
struggled  to  arise,  but  could  not ;  to  cry  out,  but  the 
tightened  grasp  upon  my  throat  suffocated  me.  Then 
the  hand  was  as  suddenly  withdrawn.  I  sprang  from 
my  bed,  rushed  into  the  adjoining  room,  tried  every 
door,  looked  into  both  closets,  examined  the  windows 
and  came  back  to  find  my  wife  laughing  at  me.  I  had 
had  a  nightmare.  But  if,  while  I  felt  the  hand  on  my 
throat,  she  had  seen  the  form  of  a  robber,  or  felt  his 
hand  beneath  her  pillow,  it  would  have  been  difficult 
to  convince  me  that  it  was  a  dream.  Two  persons  do 
not  dream  the  same  dream  at  the  same  time.  Yet 
that  might  possibly  occur.  We  might  have  eaten  the 
same  indigestible  supper,  and  listened  to  the  same  sug- 
gestively alarming  story.  It  is  even  conceivable  that 
a  score  of  witnesses  should,  by  a  kind  of  contagion, 
fall  into  the  same  snare,  and  see  the  same  vision.  But 
the  testimony  of  Christian  consciousness  has  been  wit- 
nessed through  eighteen  centuries  by  men  and  women 
of    different     language,     race,    creeds,    and    rituals, 


THE   TESTIMONY    OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.  49 

in  Protestant  and  Catholic  communion,  in  first  centu- 
ry and  in  nineteenth  century,  in  Latin  and  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  race,  in  mediaeval  and  in  modern  civilization, 
in  the  man  of  letters  and  in  the  peasant,  in  the  learned 
Augustine  and  the  ignorant  tinker,  always  and  every- 
where essentially  the  same.  Expressing  itself,  as  we 
should  expect,  in  a  great  variety  of  forms,  explained, 
as  we  should  expect,  by  a  very  variable  philosophy, 
with  kaleidoscopic  worship  and  kaleidoscopic  creeds, 
the  heart  of  humanity  still  bears  one  unvarying  testi- 
mony to  the  power  of  a  divine  life,  to  the  presence  of 
an  Infinite  Spirit,  to  the  peace  of  a  God-given  par- 
don, and  to  victory  over  sorrow  and  over  sin.  If 
Christianity  is  a  dream,  the  soul  has  dreamed  it  alike 
in  the  monastic  cell  and  the  crowded  thoroughfare, 
in  the  vast  cathedral  and  the  Puritan  meeting-house, 
in  the  splendor  of  the  court  and  the  torture  of  the 
flame.  This  life  of  the  soul  is  more  universal  than 
science,  literature,  or  art ;  stronger  than  appetite, 
passion,  or  pride ;  and  more  enduring  than  death. 

If  any  one  says  that  this  appeal  to  consciousness 
proves  too  much,  that  it  proves  alike  the  truth  of  the 
Calvinistic  and  the  Arminian  theology,  the  Protestant 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  the  religion  of  Jesus 
and  the  religion  of  Buddha,  since  all  alike  appeal  to  the 
consciousness  of  their  votaries,  I  reply,  in  so  far  as  they 
do  appeal  to  the  consciousness  of  their  votaries,  and 
in  so  far  as  that  consciousness  responds,  the  religion 
is  true.  Human  consciousness  is  a  true  witness  ;  its 
4 


50  IN   AID    OF    FAITH, 

testimony,  when  confirmed  by  that  of  many  men 
and  women,  cannot  be  denied  without  denying  the 
foundation  of  all  knowledge,  and  leaving  us  in  chaos, 
without  moral,  intellectual,  or  even  physical  order. 
The  Roman  Catholic  devotee  who  prays  with  stream- 
ing eyes  to  the  Virgin  and  rises  comforted,  is  com- 
forted ;  for  God  with  wiser  because  broader  love 
than  ours,  sees  in  the  soul  which  looks  through  wo- 
manhood to  him,  a  spirit  of  faith  that  can,  and  there- 
fore must,  receive  divine  consolation.  The  soul  that 
cries  reverently  to  Buddha,  seeking  rest,  and  goes 
away  strengthened  to  bear  the  burden  which  is  not 
taken  away,  has  received  strength;  for  God  does  not 
punish  his  children  with  his  disfavor  because  they 
spell  his  name  amiss.  I  shall  hope  to  show  hereafter 
that  there  is  a  testimony  in  Christian  consciousness 
which  has  no  parallel,  and  scarcely  even  an  analogy, 
in  that  of  any  other  religious  faith.  But  such  as  it  is 
it  is  a  true  testimony.  For  God's  loving-kindness  is 
over  all  his  works  :  and  the  paganism  which  gropes 
after  God,  if  haply  it  may  find  him,  does  find  him,  as 
Paul  told  the  Athenians.  It  was  not  to  Christian  be- 
lievers, but  to  pagan  searchers,  that  he  said,  "  In  him 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being ;  "  and  it  was 
not  a  Hebrew  prophet,  but  a  pagan  poet,  he  cited  as 
a  witness  to  the  truth  that  we  are  all  his  offspring. 

There  is  many  an  article  in  our  modern  creeds 
which  mediaeval  scholasticism  has  woven  into  them, 
and  modern  thought  is  taking  out  again.     But  the 


THE   TESTIMONY   OF  CONSCIOUSNESS.  5 1 

great  facts  of  spiritual  life — immortality,  God,  divine 
inspiration,  and  the  forgiveness  of  sins — can  only  be 
denied  by  one  who  has  never  considered  the  testimo- 
ny of  consciousness,  or  who,  in  denying  its  truthful- 
ness, denies  the  veracity  of  that  witness  on  whom  all 
our  knowledge  and  all  our  life  depends. 


CHAPTER   V. 


THE    INFINITE    POWER. 


SOME  years  ago,  while  on  a  visit  to  the  island  of 
Mackinaw,  in  company  with  a  few  friends,  I 
sailed  across  the  straits,  and  landed  on  the  northern 
shore  of  the  State  of  Michigan.  We  there  disem- 
barked, and,  following  a  half- overgrown  wood- road 
for  a  couple  of  miles,  under  the  leadership  of  one  of 
the  party,  came  upon  a  village  of  considerable  size. 
There  was  a  hotel,  a  large  saw-mill,  a  store,  and 
perhaps  a  score  of  cottages.  But  there  not  a  man, 
woman,  child,  dog,  cat,  or  mouse  to  be  seen.  It  was 
absolutely  without  a  sign  of  life.  A  capitalist  had 
conceived  the  idea  of  sawing  the  lumber  there  in  the 
forest  and  transporting  the  boards  to  the  market  by 
the  lake,  but  his  enterprise  had  failed.  We  did  not, 
however,  need  to  be  told  this  story  to  give  us 
absolute  assurance  that  man  had  been  there  before  us. 
The  evidence  of  his  handiwork  was  all-sufficient. 
Analogous  remains  of  human  handiwork  are  often 
come  upon  by  the  scientist  in  his  explorations,  and 
he  always  draws  the  same  conclusion ;  he  never 
entertains  for  a  moment  the  suggestion  that  they 
52 


THE    INFINITE    POWER.  53 

happened,  or  were  evolved.  He  finds  beneath  the 
waters  of  the  Swiss  lakes  the  remains  of  ruined  piers, 
and  draws  a  picture  of  prehistoric  lake-dwellers ; 
on  the  face  of  Colorado  cliffs  human  habitations,  and 
portrays  the  character  of  the  prehistoric  cliff-dwellers  ; 
in  the  mounds  of  the  West  remains  of  a  civilization 
preceding  that  of  the  North  American  Indians,  and 
is  sure  that  such  a  civilization  existed,  though  there  is 
neither  history  nor  tradition  of  it ;  arrow-headed  flints 
in  great  numbers  in  gravel  quarries  in  France,  and 
unhesitatingly  concludes  the  existence  of  a  savage 
manufactory  antedating  all  history,  written  or 
legendary.  This  conclusion  is  never  questioned  by 
any  scientist.  I  believe  that  some  theologians, 
anxious  to  demonstrate  that  the  world  of  man  is  not 
more  ancient  than  Archbishop  Usher's  chronology 
in  the  margin  of  our  Bibles  would  make  it,  did  once 
suggest  that  God  might  have  made  the  arrow-heads, 
though  why,  unless  as  a  sort  of  practical  joke  on  his 
children,  is  not  suggested;  but  this  hypothesis  has 
never  found  acceptance  in  either  theological  or  scien- 
tific circles ;  and  no  one  has  ever  ventured  to  inti- 
mate that  no  one  made  them. 

The  scientific  argument  for  the  existence  of  a  God 
is  precisely  that  for  the  existence  of  prehistoric  man. 
It  is  that  implied  in  the  answer  of  the  French 
Christian  to  his  atheistical  companion  who  admired 
the  cuckoo  clock  upon  the  mantel,  and  asked,  "  Who 
made  it  ?"     "  Nobody,"   replied    the    Christian ;   "  it 


54  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

happened."  This  argument,  which  antedates  Aristotle, 
has  grown  no  weaker  with  age  and  use.  Since  the 
death  of  Ernst  Haeckel  it  is  doubtful  whether  there  is 
left  an  avowed  atheist  among  thinking  and  scholarly- 
men.  Agnostics  plenty,  Positivists  some,  but  atheists  ? 
No  !  The  scientifically  skeptical  world  with  substan- 
tial unanimity  accepts  the  conclusion  which  Herbert 
Spencer  has  recently  formulated  as  the  theistic  creed 
of  the  scientist :  "  Amid  the  mysteries  which  be- 
come the  more  mysterious  the  more  they  are 
thought  about,  there  will  remain  the  one  absolute 
certainty,  that  he  is  ever  in  the  presence  of  an  In- 
finite and  Eternal  Energy  from  whom  all  things 
proceed."  In  what  respects  has  modern  science 
modified  this  conclusion  or  the  argument  which  con- 
ducts to  it  ? 

I.  The  ancient  Hebrew  conceived  of  the  world  as 
a  flat  plain  of  moderate  extent,  inclosed  under  a 
blue  dome  or  vault,  lighted  by  a  series  of  revolving 
lights,  and  curtained  by  clouds.  What  an  American 
would  call  a  pond,  thirteen  miles  long  by  three  or 
four  wide,  he  called  the  Sea  of  Galilee ;  what  an 
American  would  call  a  hill  a  few  hundred  feet  high, 
he  called  Mount  Carmel ;  the  Mediterranean  was  to 
him  the  Great  Sea  ;  and  the  little  province  of  Pales- 
tine, about  as  large  as  our  state  of  Vermont,  was  to 
him  The  Land,  or  sometimes  The  Earth.  His  con- 
ception of  the  Creator  was  unavoidably  commensu- 
rate with  his  conception  of  the  creation.     He  thought 


THE   INFINITE    POWER.  55 

that  the  Creator  dwelt  in  a  tent  or  a  temple,  and  all 
the  reiterated  assertions  of  his  prophets  could  not  in- 
spire him  with  a  larger  idea.  He  was  more  than  half 
inclined  to  believe  with  the  heathen  that  his  God  was 
a  god  of  the  hills,  and  could  not  drive  out  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  valley,  who,  with  their  chariots  of  iron, 
were  too  strong  for  his  little  deity. l  When  the  Phil- 
istines captured  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  the  box  that 
stood  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  of  the  Tabernacle,  they 
believed  that  they  had  captured  Jehovah  in  this  box, 
and  the  Israelites  were  more  than  half  inclined  to  be 
of  the  same  opinion.  With  this  belittled  idea  of  God 
idolatry  was  inevitable  ;  a  picture  or  a  statue  served 
very  well  to  embody  all  the  little  conception  such  a 
people  had  of  the  invisible  power  which  animates  na- 
ture ;  nor  could  they  understand  why  this  help  to 
imagination  should  be  denied  them,  since  they  could 
not  understand  how  feeble  and  degrading  was  that 
imagination. 

To  all  this,  science  has  forever  put  an  end.  We 
know  to-day  that  this  world  is  not  the  center  of  the 
universe,  but  a  grain  of  sand  on  the  shore  of  infinity, 
and  one  of  the  smallest  of  its  sand-grains.  We  know 
that  the  heavens  are  no  dome,  but  illimitable  space ; 
and  their  stellar  glory  not  torches  set  to  illuminate  the 
earth,  but  stars  and  systems  of  stars  whose  magnitude 
surpasses  alike  the  power  of  the  mathematician  and 
the  imagination  of  the  poet.     The  light  reaches  us 

1  Judges  i.  19. 


$6  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

from  the  sun,  ninety-five  million  miles  away,  in  eight 
seconds.  But  there  are  stars  in  sight  so  distant  that 
if  an  observer  were  stationed  on  one  with  a  telescope 
sufficiently  powerful  to  enable  him  to  see  what  is 
transpiring  on  this  planet,  he  would  see  not  the  nine- 
teenth century,  but  the  first,  with  its  decaying  Greek 
and  Roman  civilization,  and  the  first  dawn  of  its 
Christian  light  shining  from  the  stable  of  Bethlehem ; 
stars  so  distant  that  such  an  observer  would  see 
Abraham  coming  out  of  the  land  of  paganism,  the 
world's  first  pilgrim  for  conscience'  sake,  to  lay  in  Ju- 
daism the  foundation  for  the  world's  first  religion ; 
stars  so  distant  that  as  he  looked  he  would  see  the 
nebulous  matter  of  the  future  earth  solidify  into  rock, 
and  the  first  reflected  light  of  a  new-created  world 
would  strike  upon  his  vision. 

Moreover,  we  know  to-day  that  the  same  Power 
from  whom  all  things  proceed  is  manifest  alike  in  that 
world  and  in  ours,  and  in  all  the  inter-stellar  spaces, 
binding  star  to  star,  as  molecule  to  molecule.  Fred- 
eric Harrison,  criticising  Mr.  Spencer's  deistic  belief, 
says  that  he  would  prefer  to  say,  "  Some  power  or 
powers ; "  but  in  this  criticism  Mr.  Harrison  is  cer- 
tainly unscientific  and  behind  the  age.  It  is  not 
strange  that  paganism  believed  in  gods  many  and 
lords  many.  For  to  the  superficial  observer  nature 
seemed  a  prey  of  various  and  conflicting  forces. 
Thus  not  only  was  each  vital  force  deified,  but  each 
locality  was  given  over  to  the  control  of  a  provincial 


THE    INFINITE   POWER.  57 

deity.  The  Syrians,  defeated  in  the  hill  country  by 
the  Hebrews,  proposed  to  fight  them  on  the  plains, 
for,  said  they,  "  their  gods  are  the  gods  of  the  hills." 
Of  one  God  over  all  and  in  all  there  is  small  trace  in 
any  ancient  religion,  as  of  one  Power  over  all  and  in  all 
there  is  small  trace  in  any  ancient  science.  But  the 
same  process  which  has  demonstrated  the  illimitable 
extent  has  demonstrated  the  unity  of  that  Infinite 
and  Eternal  Power  from  whom  all  things  proceed. 
Astronomy  has  proved  that  the  same  force  binds  the 
planets  together  that  draws  the  apple  from  the 
bough  ;  the  spectroscope  has  shown  that  the  chemi- 
cal forces  in  the  sun  are  the  same  that  operate  in  the 
fire  on  the  hearth  ;  and  the  law  of  the  correlation  of 
forces  has  clearly  indicated  that  they  are  all  but  dif- 
ferent manifestations  of  one  and  the  same  great 
Force.  The  Infinite  and  Eternal  Power  from  which 
all  things  proceed  is  one,  not  many.  If  it  were  possi- 
ble to  heap  all  our  churches,  all  our  Bibles,  and  all 
our  books  of  theology  in  one  vast  funereal  pyre,  and 
put  all  ministers  and  religious  teachers  upon  the  top 
of  the  vast  pile,  and  burn  them  all  up  together,  it 
would  still  be  inconceivable  that  humanity  should  go 
back  to  either  idolatry  or  polytheism,  unless  all  that 
science  has  taught  were  also  destroyed  in  the  vast 
conflagration. 

2.  Science  has  also  at  once  illustrated  and  demon- 
strated the  aesthetic  and  beneficent  qualities  in  this 
Power.     Among    the  "  all   things "    which    proceed 


58  IN  AID   OF   FAITH. 

therefrom  are  all  things  of  beauty.  There  is  no  color 
that  charms  us  on  the  painter's  canvas  that  was  not 
before  produced  upon  the  flower  or  the  cloud,  with  a 
sunbeam  for  a  brush.  There  is  no  form  of  artistic 
beauty  which  does  not  mirror  some  superior  beauty 
in  life  ;  no  Madonna  of  Raphael  which  equals  the  liv- 
ing models  from  which  he  studied.  All  architectural 
forms  have  their  originals  in  nature  ;  the  Doric  col- 
umns of  the  forest,  and  the  delicate  tracery  of  the 
Gothic  cathedrals  in  the  more  exquisite  spires  and 
buttresses  of  the  mountain  peaks.1  There  is  far  less 
in  the  cathedral  of  Milan  to  indicate  a  beauty  in  de- 
sign than  in  the  Alps  or  Apennines ;  less  in  Church's 
marvellous  picture  of  Niagara  than  in  the  original 
which  it  faintly  though  beautifully  indicates. 

Science,  too,  while  it  leaves  much  still  uncompre- 
hended  in  what  we  call  nature's  operations,  has  ex- 
plained much  that  was  once  dark,  and  shown  benefi- 
cence where  there  seemed  of  old  time  only  wrath  and 
bitterness,  or  idle  waste.  The  ocean  is  no  longer  a 
waste  of  waters  ;  it  is  the  great  reservoir  which  sup- 
plies our  earth  with  its  circumambient  atmosphere  ;  its 
very  storms  preserve  from  the  stagnation  which 
brings  death ;  its  currents  bring  benedictions  with 
them.     The  Gulf  Stream  carries  summer  in  its  bosom 

1  Ruskin  has  indicated  in  a  wonderful  eloquent  paragraph  the  in- 
spiration which  all  true  architects  have  derived  from  nature,  and  the 
adaptation  of  each  true  architecture  to  its  own  natural  environment. 
"Studies  of  Venice,"  chapter  vi. ;  "The  Nature  of  the  Gothic," 
section  viii. 


THE    INFINITE    POWER.  59 

from  the  Caribbean  Sea  to  the  western  coast  of  Eu- 
rope, makes  habitable  the  British  Isles,  and  drops 
from  its  opened  palm  upon  the  shores  of  France  and 
Spain  the  peach,  the  apricot,  and  the  grape.  The 
great  desert  of  Sahara  proves  to  be  the  furnace  from 
which  the  hot  air  sweeps  with  summer  in  its  wings  to 
redeem  the  continent  of  Europe  from  the  inevitable 
barrenness  of  what  would  otherwise  be  an  always  win- 
try clime.  The  spired  and  buttressed  Alps,  which 
beat  back  into  the  valley  the  singing  birds,  and  for- 
bid the  trespass  of  the  flowers  op  their  steep  and 
snowy  sides,  hold  on  their  brows  the  congealed  treas- 
ures of  rain  till  the  time  of  need  has  come,  when  the 
south  wind  loosens  them,  catches  them  in  its  arms, 
and  flies  all  over  Northern  Europe,  dropping  them  in 
the  farmer's  opened  furrows.  The  cyclone  sweeps 
away  a  more  deadly  malaria,  and  leaves  life  and  health 
in  the  land  it  has  seemed  to  devastate  with  fury. 
The  very  earthquakes  and  volcanoes  prove  them- 
selves to  be  safety-valves  whose  destructiveness  suffi- 
ces to  indicate  what  terrific  fate  would  overtake  the 
home  of  man  if  no  such  vents  had  been  provided.1 

3.  I  am  not  unaware  that  certain  modern  thinkers 
imagine  that  evolution  weakens,  if  it  does  not  destroy 
the  argument  for  the  existence  of  a  designer  from  the 
evidence  of  design  in  creation,  and  regard  the  Infinite 

1  See,  for  a  fuller  exposition  of  the  difference  in  our  estimate  of  the 
value  of  things  in  nature  supposed  heretofore  to  be  useless  and  waste, 
Mr.  Ruskin's  chapter  on  the  "Mountain  Glory"  in  "Modern 
Painters,"   Vol.  X. 


60  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

and  Eternal  Energy  as  at  once  impersonal  and  unin- 
telligent. The  doctrine  of  evolution,  they  suppose, 
has  put  an  end  to  what  is  called  the  teleological  argu- 
ment. And  yet  I  observe  that  no  scientist  can  write 
upon  any  scientific  theme  without  perpetually  assum- 
ing the  reality  of  such  design.  He  is  continually 
inquiring  what  is  the  design,  use,  purpose,  end, 
object,  of  a  given  organ  or  arrangement;  the  pollen 
in  a  plant,  or  the  tissue  in  a  body.  But  material 
things  have  not  design,  use,  purpose,  end,  object. 
These  words  are  descriptive  of  mental  states.  And 
their  universal  use  in  all  language  of  science  car- 
ries with  it  the  demonstration  that  the  mind,  by  an 
inevitable  law,  conceives  in  its  study  of  nature  of  a  de- 
signer, whose  end,  aim,  and  purpose  he  is  consciously 
or  unconsciously  studying.  Indeed,  if  he  did  not 
assume  such  design  there  would  be  nothing  to  study. 
The  phenomena  which  he  investigates  possess  a 
mental  as  well  as  a  physical  continuity ;  and  it 
is  that  mental  continuity  which  is  the  object  of  all 
science  to  discover;  that  mental  continuity  which 
gives  the  clue  by  which  he  traces  out  law  and  order 
in  nature.  The  law  of  evolution  has  rendered  nature 
somewhat  less  marvellous,  only  to  render  it  far  more 
admirable.  It  is  less  an  object  for  our  wonder,  and 
more  for  our  reverence. 

When  an  eastern  juggler  causes  a  tree  to  grow  out 
of  the  ground  before  me  by  a  touch  of  his  wand,  I 
am  astonished ;    but  when   I   see   the  skillful  artist 


THE   INFINITE   POWER.  6 1 

turning  the  clay  upon  his  wheel  and  making  it  grow 
into  a  vase  before  my  eyes,  I  admire  and  revere. 
The  Infinite  and  Eternal  Power,  from  whom  all 
things  proceed,  no  longer  appears  as  a  magician 
working  mere  marvels  by  a  magic  spell ;  we  see  his 
hand  upon  the  clay,  and  in  comprehending  some- 
thing of  the  method  of  his  touch  see  far  more  to  ex- 
cite reverence  for  his  skill.  The  doctrine  of  evolu- 
tion, so  far  from  eliminating  the  doctrine  of  design 
from  the  universe,  has  shown  us  the  Creator  using  in 
all  his  work  means  to  his  ends ;  he  achieves  them, 
not  by  a  mere  power  which  speaks  and  it  is  done, 
and  which,  therefore,  need  use  no  skill,  being  limited 
to  no  instrumentalities  ;  he  achieves  them  by  adapt- 
ing instruments  to  their  end,  and  bringing  the  most 
magnificent  results  out  of  the  seemingly  least  ade- 
quate materials.  Let  a  very  simple  illustration  suf- 
fice. Last  winter  was  a  very  variable  one,  and,  in 
spite  of  a  new  furnace,  we  have  found  it  almost  im- 
possible to  keep  an  equable  temperature  in  our 
house.  We  were  alternately  roasted  and  frozen,  and 
could  survive  the  rapid  alternations  of  wind  and 
weather  only  by  moving  from  one  side  of  the  house 
to  the  other,  according  to  the  vane  on  the  stable. 
But  all  this  winter  I  have  had  a  furnace  in  my  body 
which  has  been  practically  self-regulating.  At  least 
I  have  given  very  little  attention  to  it ;  and  yet  it  has 
probably  never  allowed  the  variation  of  more  than 
three  or  four  degrees  ;  and  would  not  allow  a  varia- 


62  IN   AID   OF  FAITH. 

tion  of  more  than  eight  or  ten,  winter  or  summer,  in 
arctic  or  in  tropical  zone.  So  long  as  this  was  all  a 
mystery,  it  was  simply  a  marvel.  But  now  that 
science  has  shown  us  so  fully  (though  not  yet  com- 
pletely) the  means  by  which  this  even  temperature  is 
preserved,  and  the  process  of  oxygenization  going  on 
within  the  body  which  preserves  it,  the  marvel  be- 
comes a  wonder,  and  the  experience  of  mere  surprise 
is  changed  into  one  of  admiration. 

Nor  is  this  the  conclusion  of  a  theologian,  who 
gives  his  superficial  glance  at  the  processes  of  nature 
with  a  preconception  in  favor  of  divine  design,  which 
incapacitates  him  from  truly  interpreting  nature's 
processes.  From  many  like  testimonies  of  purely 
scientific  evolutionists  I  take  one  which  at  once  con- 
firms and  illustrates  the  conviction,  growing  in  the 
minds  of  all  unprejudiced  students  of  nature,  that 
there  is  not  only  a  power,  but  also  a  design,  behind 
all  its  varied  phenomena.  I  quote  from  Huxley's 
Essay  on  the  Origin  of  Species,  Westminster  Review 
for  April,  i860,  reprinted  in  "  Lay  Sermons,"  pp.  260, 
261. 

"  The  student  of  Nature  wonders  the  more  and  is 
astonished  the  less,  the  more  conversant  he  becomes 
with  her  operations  ;  but  of  all  the  perennial  miracles 
she  offers  to  his  inspection,  perhaps  the  most  worthy 
of  admiration  is  the  development  of  a  plant  or  of  an 
animal  from  its  embryo.  Examine  the  recently  laid 
egg  of  some  common  animal,  such  as  a  salamander  or 


THE    INFINITE   POWER.  63 

a  newt.  It  is  a  minute  spheroid  in  which  the  best 
microscope  will  reveal  nothing  but  a  structureless  sac, 
enclosing  a  glairy  fluid,  holding  granules  in  suspen- 
sion. But  strange  possibilities  lie  dormant  in  that 
semi-fluid  globule.  Let  a  moderate  supply  of  warmth 
reach  its  watery  cradle,  and  the  plastic  matter  under- 
goes changes  so  rapid  and  yet  so  steady  and  purpose- 
like in  their  succession,  that  one  can  only  compare 
them  to  those  operated  by  a  skilled  modeller  upon  a 
formless  lump  of  clay.  As  with  an  invisible  trowel, 
the  mass  is  divided  and  subdivided  into  smaller  and 
smaller  portions,  until  it  is  reduced  to  an  aggregation 
of  granules  not  too  large  to  build  withal  the  finest 
fabrics  of  the  nascent  organism.  And,  then,  it  is  as  if 
a  delicate  finger  traced  out  the  line  to  be  occupied  by 
the  spinal  column,  and  moulded  the  contour  of  the 
body ;  pinching  up  the  head  at  one  end,  the  tail  at 
the  other,  and  fashioning  flank  and  limb  into  due 
salamandrine  proportions,  in  so  artistic  a  way,  that 
after  watching  the  process  hour  by  hour,  one  is  al- 
most involuntarily  possessed  by  the  notion,  that  some 
more  subtle  aid  to  vision  than  an  achromatic,  would 
show  the  hidden  artist,  with  his  plan  before  him,  striv- 
ing with  skilful  manipulation  to  perfect  his  work." 

But  are  not  these  results  produced  by  Natural  Law? 
Stop  one  moment  and  answer  me  frankly  another 
question  :  Did  Law  ever  do  anything  ?  Can  it  by  any 
possibility  ever  do  anything  ?  Never  !  neither  in  the 
world  of  men  nor  in  the    world   of  matter.     Law  is 


64  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

never  anything  but  a  statement  of  the  way  in  which 
things  are  done,  have  been  done,  or  will  be  done. 
Congress  passes  a  law  to  dredge  out  the  Mississippi 
River.  But  will  the  Law  dredge  it  ?  By  no  means. 
Engineers  and  engines  and  workmen  will  dredge  it, 
in  accordance  with  the  method  which  the  Law  has 
prescribed.  The  Law  directs,  but  does  nothing.  The 
law  of  gravitation  attracts  the  heavenly  bodies  to  each 
other  ?  No  !  No  scientific  thinker  imagines  that 
law  attracts  anything.  The  law  of  gravitation  is  the 
statement  by  careful  observers  of  a  universal  fact ; 
this,  namely,  that  all  bodies  do  attract  each  other  ac- 
cording to  the  product  of  their  mass,  and  inversely  as 
the  square  of  their  distances.  But  this  statement  does 
not  attract  them.  They  were  attracted  before  it  was 
discovered,  and  would  continue  to  be  attracted  if  it 
were  forgotten.  Law  is  only  a  label  which  we  put 
on  phenomena.  There  is  neither  moral  nor  physical 
force  in  law.  Law  is  only  the  statement  of  a  fact. 
The  fact  still  awaits  an  explanation.  The  law  "  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself  "  was  promulgated 
some  four  thousand  years  ago  ;  but  it  has  not  created 
love.  It  only  states  what  might,  could,  would,  or 
should  be  ;  if  it  is  to  be,  some  other  force  than  Law 
must  bring  the  glad  result  about. 

But  are  not  these  results  produced  by  natural 
forces  ?  Substitute  the  singular  for  the  plural ;  for  we 
have  already  seen  that  it  is  one  Force,  not  many 
forces.     Certainly;    that   is    exactly   what    produces 


THE    INFINITE    POWER.  65 

them.  That  is,  they  are  the  product  of  an  Infinite  and 
Eternal  Energy,  from  which  all  things  proceed.  Whe- 
ther you  call  this  Infinite  and  Eternal  something  En- 
ergy, Force,  Power,  Nature,  or  God,  is  a  matter  of 
importance  only  or  chiefly  to  the  spelling-master. 
That  there  is  in  what  we  call  nature,  and  back  of  it, 
manifesting  itself  through  it,  an  Infinite  and  Eternal 
One,  who  pervades  it,  possesses  it,  animates  it,  con- 
trols it — this  is  the  doctrine  of  theism  against  atheism, 
which  is  the  doctrine  that  there  is  no  such  One,  no 
Power,  no  Force,  no  Nature,  no  God,  no  Law ;  no- 
thing but  a  perpetual  succession  of  phenomena,  with- 
out design,  use,  purpose,  end,  or  object — a  doctrine 
which  no  one  can  truly  hold  who  clearly  states  it  to 
himself,  a  doctrine  that  can  hardly  be  called  even  a 
thought,  since,  in  truth,  no  one  really  thinks  it, 
though  some  unthinking  people  think  they  think 
it.  And  that  this  Force,  Power,  Energy,  Nature, 
is  One,  not  many,  illimitable,  not  petty,  benig- 
nant, not  malignant,  intelligent,  not  blind,  is  made 
clearer  day  by  day.  Thanks,  Science,  for  thy  ser- 
vice. Thou  too,  as  well  as  Religion,  hast  had  many 
false  prophets,  who  misread  and  misinterpreted  thee. 
Thou  knowest  not  all,  nor  yet  the  half.  Thou  tar- 
riest  in  the  outer  court,  and  must  always  tarry. 
The  heart  cannot  know  thee,  and  thou  knowest  not 
the  heart.  But  thou  hast  wrought  nobly  thy  min- 
istry ;  thou  hast  corrected  many  an  error  of  priest 
and  preacher;  thou  hast  given  us  a  larger  thought  of 
5 


66  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

God  than  we  ever  could  have  had  without  thee  ;  we 
turn  not  disdainfully  from  thy  teaching,  because  we 
turn  to  our  hearts  to  learn  what  they  too  have  to  tell 
about  Him  in  whose  presence  thou  dost  assure  us  it 
is  an  absolute  certainty  we  all  and  always  stand. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  UNIVERSAL    PRESENCE. 

HOMER  pictures  Jupiter  and  the  attendant  gods 
upon  Mount  Olympus  taking  counsel,  and 
sending  now  a  dream  and  now  Minerva  to  carry  his 
messages  to  the  battle-field.      She 

"  In  haste 
Shot  from  the  Olympic  summit  like  a  star 
Sent  by  the  crafty  Saturn's  son  to  warn 
The  seamen  or  some  mighty  host  in  arms, 
A  radiant  meteor  scattering  sparkles  round." 

Many  Christians  still  imagine  Jehovah  after  a  similar 
fashion :  dwelling  on  some  far  away  Olympus,  and 
sending  his  swift  angel  messengers  to  do  his  bidding. 
They  localize  him  in  their  imagination  in  land  "  far, 
far  away,"  send  their  prayers  out  into  the  void  to  find 
him,  and  wait  for  an  answer  to  come  back.  They 
stand  at  one  end  of  the  telephonic  wire  ;  they  imagine 
him  to  be  within  reach  of  the  other ;  but  whether  the 
wire  works  or  not,  and  whether  they  get  a  hearing 
and  an  answer  or  not,  they  are  always  more  or  less 
uncertain.     That  God   is  a  terrestrial   Presence   has 

67 


68  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

not  yet  got  possession  of  the  citadel    of  the   timid 
and  unspiritual  mind. 

Along  with  this  pagan  notion  of  a  localized  deity- 
go  other  notions  fitted  to  belong  with  it.  Among 
Raphael's  cartoons  is  one  representing  the  creation. 
An  elderly  gentleman  of  benign  appearance  sits  upon 
the  ground,  while  all  about  him  are  the  unfinished 
fragments  of  what  might  pass  for  an  incomplete 
Noah's  ark.  The  artist  portrays  with  the  pencil  a 
picture  which  no  longer  is  endurable  in  art,  but  re- 
mains in  philosophy.  Theology  still  often  conceives 
of  God  as  a  sort  of  Infinite  manufacturer ;  the  uni- 
verse as  his  handiwork ;  the  forces  with  which  it  is 
stored  as  the  mainspring  which  he  has  wound  up  and 
set  a-going ;  if  it  does  not  do  his  will,  or  if  his  will 
changes,  he  interferes,  and  gives  it  a  new  direction  ; 
this  interference  in  minor  matters  makes  a  special 
providence,  in  larger  ones  a  miracle.  If  his  child 
wishes  him  to  interfere,  he  does ;  if  not,  he  leaves  the 
machinery  to  take  its  own  course ;  this  is  prayer.  I 
do  not  think  this  is  a  travesty  of  a  very  common 
form  of  belief,  or  half-belief,  which  vainly  strives  to 
maintain  itself  against  the  larger,  grander  thought  of 
nature  which  science  compels  the  reluctant  mind  to 
accept.  I  state  it  in  order  to  declare  emphatically 
my  disbelief  of  it ;  disbelief  of  its  root,  and  of  all  its 
branches ;  of  its  conception  of  God,  and  of  its  notion 
of  God's  relation  to  the  universe  ;  of  its  philosophy 
of  providence  and  of  prayer  ;  and  to  express  my  pro- 


THE  UNIVERSAL  PRESENCE.         69 

found  gratitude  to  science  for  destroying  this  last  and 
subtlest  form  of  idolatry.  This  notion  of  a  localized 
Olympic  deity  is  as  unscriptural  as  it  is  unscientific, 
as  contrary  to  the  best  production  of  spiritual  exper- 
ience as  it  is  to  the  best  production  of  scientific 
thought.  God  is  the  Universal  Presence  ;  and  never 
through  all  eternity  can  you  and  I  be  nearer  to  him 
than  we  are  at  this  moment — you,  as  you  sit  in  your 
easy  chair  by  the  fire  ;  I,  as  T  sit  in  my  own  chair  at 
my  library  desk.  Clearer  views  of  him  we  may  have, 
and  I  trust  we  shall  have  ;  nearer  to  him  we  never 
can  be. 

The  whole  current  of  Scripture  teaching,  the 
whole  tendency  of  the  spiritually  instructed  Hebrew 
mind,  was  opposed  to  this  paganized  notion  of  a 
localized  God.  Against  two  forms  of  pagan  thought 
respecting  God  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  are  a  perpet- 
ual and  indignant  protest.  Against  the  notion  that 
nature  is  the  manifestation  of  God  the  Scripture  set 
the  antipodal  truth  that  God  made  man  in  his  own 
image  ;  against  the  notion  that  God  is  here  or  there, 
centered  and  localized,  it  set  the  antipodal  truth  that 
he  is  the  Universal  Presence;  against  the  notion 
that  he  lived  in  a  temple,  or  on  a  sacred  hill,  or  in 
a  grove,  the  truth  that  he  dwells  not  in  temples 
made  with  hands,  that  the  heaven  of  heavens  cannot 
even  contain  him,  that  the  universe  is  his  dwelling- 
place. 


7<D  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit  ? 

Or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  ? 

If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  art  there  ; 

If  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  behold  thou  art  there  ; 

If  I   take   the   wings   of  the   morning,    and     dwell   in   the 

uttermost  part  of  the  sea, 
Even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me, 
And  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me. 
If  I  say,  surely  the  darkness  shall  cover  me, 
Even  the  night  shall  be  light  about  me. 
Yea,  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  thee, 
But  the  night  shineth  as  the  day  ; 
The  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  to  thee.' 

It  is  absolutely  impossible  to  reconcile  this  ex- 
perience of  the  Hebrew  poet  with  the  unscriptural 
and  unscientific  conception  of  a  localized  God,  who 
dwells  enthroned  somewhere  in  a  central  palace, 
and  communicates  with  various  parts  of  his  realm 
by  winged  messengers  or  invisible  electric  wires. 
Equally  impossible  is  it  to  reconcile  that  notion 
with  such  declarations  in  the  New  Testament  as 
those  of  Paul,  that  God  is  not  far  from  every  one  of 
us ;  that  in  him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  be- 
ing ;  that  he  is  before  all  things,  and  in  him  all 
things  consist ;  that  God  is  all  and  in  all.  The  phi- 
losophy of  the  New  Testament  and  the  poetry  of  the 
Old  Testament  are  equally  incongruous  with  the 
pagan  conception  of  an  Olympic  Jehovah.  He  is 
manifested  locally,  for  only  in  time  and  space  can  we 
perceive  him  ;  he  is  the  Universal  Presence,  whom  no 
eye  hath  seen  or  can  see.     He  has  but  one  dwelling- 

1  Psalm    cxxxix. 


THE   UNIVERSAL    PRESENCE.  7 1 

place — the  light.  Light  is  the  one  universal  and 
pervasive  fact  in  nature,  the  only  nature-emblem, 
therefore,  which  can  suggest  a  dwelling-place  for 
him. 

If  any  reader,  against  this  uniform  teaching  of 
Scripture,  sets  what  he  is  pleased  to  call  the  pic- 
tures of  the  Book  of  Revelation,  the  reply  is  simple : 
the  Book  of  Revelation  is  not  pictorial,  but  symbolic. 
Pictures  of  God!  The  notion  was  abhorrent  to  the 
pious  Hebrew.  Symbols?  Yes!  Pictures?  Nev- 
er !  Let  the  reader  attempt  to  illustrate  the  Book 
of  Revelation,  and  he  will  find  himself  whelmed  in  a 
sea  of  grotesqueness  and  absurdity.  The  great  white 
throne  and  Him  who  sat  upon  it  is  not  a  picture,  and 
was  never  intended  to  be  imaged  by  the  mind.  It 
is  a  symbol  of  absolute  and  pure  dominion.  The 
Book  of  Revelation  will  never  be  truly  interpreted 
until  it  is  translated  not  into  images  but  into 
thoughts. 

If  to  disbelieve  in  this  subtle  image  worship,  this 
construction  of  an  ethereal  idol,  this  tenuous  heaven 
with  an  enthroned  King  centered  in  it,  this  Raph- 
ael's picture  of  a  divine  manufacturer  of  the  uni- 
verse, is  to  be  skeptic — then  David,  Isaiah,  Paul, 
were  skeptics,  and  I  dare  to  join  their  company.  If 
one  does  not  wish  to,  science  will  compel  him.  For 
science  has  gone  far  toward  demonstrating  the  truth 
of  Herbert  Spencer's  declaration  that  we  are  "  ever 
in  the  presence  of  an   Infinite   and  Eternal  Energy 


J2  IN    AID    OF   FAITH. 

from  whom  all  things  proceed."  It  is  as  certain  that 
we  are  always  in  the  presence  of  this  Infinite  and 
Eternal  Energy  as  that  it  exists,  and  that  it  is  as 
present  here  upon  the  earth  as  in  the  remotest  star. 
It  is  without  center  and  without  circumference,  be- 
cause it  is  infinite  and  eternal.  To  conceive  accu- 
rately the  relation  which  God  bears  to  the  universe, 
I  take  to  be  impossible.  But  we  may  seek  for 
analogies  to  help  us  think  of  it.  In  such  a  search 
we  shall  find  a  far  more  helpful  analogy  in  the  rela- 
tion between  the  soul  and  the  body  than  in  those  be- 
tween an  engineer  and  an  engine.  Where  is  the 
soul  in  the  human  body  ?  Nowhere  !  Everywhere  ! 
It  is  not  localized.  The  spirit  of  man  is  equally 
present  in  every  part  of  his  body ;  and  the  Spirit  of 
God  is  equally  present  in  every  part  of  the  universe. 
He  is  literally  All  in  all.  His  intelligence  is  con- 
scious in  every  quivering  leaf,  as  mine  in  my  finger- 
tip :  and  his  will  is  dominant  in  every  cloud,  as  mine 
in  every  articulated  joint.  If  we  seek  for  the  source 
of  force  we  must  ask  that  consciousness  which  I  have 
already  shown  to  be  the  basis  of  all  belief.  The 
only  source  of  power  of  which  we  have  knowledge 
resides  in  the  will  of  a  spirit.  I  will,  and  my  arm 
strikes  a  blow.  This  is  the  last,  the  ultimate,  fact  in 
the  analysis  of  the  phenomena  of  force.  What  we 
call  the  forces  of  nature  are  only  the  will  of  God ; 
what  we  call  the  laws  of  nature  are  only  the  habits 
of  God.     Perhaps  some  of  them  are  automatic  and 


THE    UNIVERSAL    PRESENCE.  73 

unconscious,  others  deliberate  and  purposed ;  who 
can  tell  ?  But  laws  out  of  God,  laws  other  than  the 
expression  and  manifestation  of  his  will  ?  No  !  not 
one  !  This  is  what  the  Scripture  means  when  it  de- 
clares that  all  power  belongeth  unto  God.  The 
Divine  Spirit  is  the  source  and  fountain  of  it  all. 

Special  providences  are  not  the  interventions  of  a 
machinist  with  his  machines ;  there  is  no  machinist 
and  no  machine.  They  are  the  mastery  of  an  Infinite 
Spirit  over  himself  and  the  universe  which  he  pervades 
with  his  universal  presence.  When  the  storm  gathers 
in  the  west,  and  the  thunder  growls  and  the  lightning 
flashes,  it  is  no  mere  poetic  fancy  which  declares, 
"The  Lord  thunders  in  the  heavens,  and  the  Highest 
gives  his  voice ;  he  sends  out  his  arrows  ;  he  shoots 
out  his  lightning ;"  it  is  literal,  scientific  fact.  It  is 
at  least  scientifically  as  probable  an  interpretation  of 
the  phenomena  as  that  which  attributes  them  to  a 
galvanic  battery,  which  has  been  made  and  left  to  go 
as  it  chances.  When  in  such  an  hour  I  lift  up  my 
soul  to  God,  it  is  not  to  some  distant  Divine  Operator, 
to  ask  him  to  change  the  circuit  of  his  electric  current, 
that  it  may  not  strike  me ;  it  is  to  the  God  whose  per- 
vasive will  is  the  source  of  these  sublime  forces,  the 
play  of  which  fills  my  soul  with  a  joyful  awe  and  re- 
verence. It  is  no  longer  difficult  to  believe  that  this 
infinite  and  universal  Spirit  has  shown  himself  by 
special  acts  of  will,  that  he  might  attest  his  presence 
to  blinded  eyes  and  dulled  hearts ;  nor  that  he  will 


74  IN   AID    OF    FAITH. 

so  carry  himself — and  nature  is  but  the  outward  sem 
blance  of  himself — as  not  to  harm  the  child  who  trusts 
in  him. 

If  any  critic  calls  this  conception  of  the  Universal 
Presence  pantheism,  it  might  suffice  to  reply  that 
words  are  no  longer  effective  missiles  ;  he  must  show 
its  falsity,  not  call  it  names  ;  or  it  might  suffice  to  re- 
fer him  to  the  139th  Psalm,  and  bid  him  settle  the 
question  with  the  author  of  that  sacred  ode.  But  it 
is  not  pantheism.  It  does  not  approximate  pantheism. 
Pantheism  is  the  doctrine  that  God  is  all :  very  differ- 
ent is  the  truth  that  God  is  in  all.  Pantheism  is 
to  the  universe  what  materialism  is  to  the  individual : 
there  is  no  human  spirit,  only  a  body ;  there  is  no 
divine  Spirit,  only  a  universe.  Very  different  is  this 
truth  that  the  divine  Spirit  is  equally  present  in  all 
the  universe,  as  the  human  spirit  in  all  the  body. 
His  loving-kindness  is  over  all  his  works,  for  he  is  the 
Universal  Presence,  who  is  not  far  from  every  one  of 
us,  in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being, 
but  whom  we  are  too  dull  of  heart  to  see. 

"  Glory  about  thee,  within  thee  ;  and  thou  fulfillest  thy  doom, 
Making  Him  broken  gleams  and  a  stifled  splendor  and  gloom. 
Speak  to  him,  then,  for  he  hears,  and  spirit  with  spirit  can  meet. 
Closer  is  he  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  and  feet.,'5 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    IMAGE    OF    GOD. 

A  SHIPWRECKED  traveller,  stunned  by  the 
violence  with  which  the  waves  have  thrown  him 
upon  the  coast  of  a  wholly  unknown  land,  awakes 
from  his  stupor  to  find  himself  in  a  strange  house. 
It  is  equipped  with  every  facility  and  every  comfort. 
There  are  dry  clothes  for  his  wearing  in  the  press, 
books  for  his  reading  on  the  shelves,  a  table  spread 
with  food,  abundant  stores  for  future  use,  and  ser- 
vants who  wait  upon  him  and  receive  and  obey  his 
orders.  But  in  vain  he  asks  them  what  this  house 
is,  who  built  and  furnished  it,  and  how  he  came 
there.  They  are  dumb ;  they  listen  and  obey,  but 
speak  not.  Such  a  shipwrecked  voyager  is  man ; 
this  world  is  the  palace  Beautiful ;  it  contains  food 
and  apparel  for  his  body,  and  instruction  for  his 
mind ;  and  natural  forces,  like  dumb  slaves,  wait 
upon  him  to  do  his  bidding.  But  in  vain  he  asks  of 
them  where  he  is,  how  he  has  come  here  out  of  the 
unknown,  and  by  whom  and  for  what  purpose  this 
palace  has  been  constructed  and  equipped. 

We  have  three  sources  and  degrees  of  knowledge 

75 


J6  IN    AID    OF   FAITH. 

of  character ;  we  know  it  mechanically,  historically, 
personally;  we  know  a  person  by  his  works,  by  his 
life,  and  by  personal  contact  with  him.  "  Are  you 
familiar  with  Schumann  ?  "  "  Oh,  yes  !  "  "  When 
was  he  born?"  "Oh,  I  know  nothing  about  his 
life."  "  What  sort  of  a  looking  man  was  he  ?  "  "I 
never  saw  him."  "  What,  then,  do  you  mean  by 
saying  that  you  are  familiar  with  him  ?  "  You  mean 
that  you  are  familiar  with  his  works,  you  know  him 
musically,  you  have  that  knowledge  of  him  which  a 
study  of  his  compositions  can  give  you.  But  this  is 
very  little.  It  leaves  you  wholly  in  the  dark  as  to 
his  moral  character.  Was  he  a  good  husband  ?  a 
kind  father  ?  a  patriotic  citizen  ?  a  generous  friend  ? 
a  man  of  truth  and  honor?  His  works  cannot 
answer  these  questions.  Nor  can  the  paintings  tell 
you  this  of  the  artist ;  nor  the  furniture  this  of  the 
cabinet  maker;  nor  the  engine  this  of  the  mechanic; 
nor  even  the  books  this  of  the  author.  The  letters 
of  Carlyle  or  George  Eliot  are  a  revelation  of  charac- 
ter even  to  those  most  familiar  with  the  writings  of 
the  author  of  "  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship,"  or  of 
"Adam  Bede "  and  "Daniel  Deronda."  For  the 
record  of  life  gives  us  a  revelation  of  character  which 
no  works,  not  even  of  the  pen,  can  give.  We  get 
from  the  story  of  Schumann  or  Wagner,  of  Carlyle 
or  Mrs.  Cross,  insight  into  their  real  nature.  We  see 
them  acting  under  trial  and  temptation ;  we  hear 
them    speaking,  see    them  live,  and    in    their    words 


THE   IMAGE   OF   GOD.  77 

and  lives  see  their  personality  manifested.  We  no 
longer  look  at  their  works,  we  look  at  them.  But 
still  we  do  not  know  them,  we  only  know  about  them. 
By  the  question,  Did  you  know  Mr.  Garfield  ?  you 
mean  something  more  than,  Did  you  know  the  story 
of  his  life  ?  We  all  know  that  story.  But  we  all 
recognize  that  there  is  a  personal  knowledge  which 
transcends  the  knowledge  through  either  works  or 
deeds  recorded.  There  is  a  personal  contact  of  soul 
with  soul.  When  we  have  read  all  that  history  can 
tell  us  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  or  President  Garfield,  or 
General  Grant,  there  is  still  something  which  those 
only  possess  who  have  looked  into  the  hero's  eye, 
grasped  his  hand,  sat  by  his  side,  and  let  the  stream 
of  their  thought  and  feeling  flow  in  a  common  cur- 
rent with  his.  This  desire  for  personal  acquaintance 
gives  intense  interest  to  all  true  biography,  and  is 
the  one  healthful  element  in  the  universal  love  of 
gossip.  To  every  life  there  are  these  three  currents ; 
the  undercurrent  of  works  done  ;  the  inner  current 
of  life  lived  ;  the  innermost  current  of  thought  and 
feeling,  the  source  and  spring  of  all  the  rest.  The 
first  we  enter  through  a  study  of  the  man's  products, 
the  second  through  a  study  of  his  life,  the  third  only 
by  personal  contact. 

Deism  allows  to  us  only  the  first  degree  of  knowl- 
edge of  God  ;  Christianity  avers  that  we  have  the 
other  two. 

If  there  is  no  historical  manifestation  of  God,  there 


78  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

is  and  can  be  no  real  knowledge  of  him.  The  pic- 
tures he  paints  in  the  western  sky  tell  us  as  little  of 
his  moral  character  as  the  pictures  hung  upon  the 
wall  tell  of  the  artist  who  has  painted  them  ;  the 
great  forces  of  nature  tell  us  no  more  of  his  truth- 
fulness or  his  love  than  the  pulsations  of  a  Corliss 
engine  respecting  the  moral  qualities  of  its  builder. 
Watch  the  artist  at  his  easel  or  the  blacksmith  at  his 
forge,  and  still  you  know  nothing  of  him.  The  uni- 
verse of  matter  is  at  best  but  the  body  which  God 
animates ;  and  the  body  of  itself  tells  us  little  of  the 
soul  which  dwells  within.  Great  souls  inhabit  little 
bodies,  and  little  souls  great  bodies ;  and  moral 
greatness  can  as  little  be  measured  by  miles  as  by 
feet  and  inches.  Giantship  is  not  greatness.  All 
religions  which  have  had  no  other  or  better  manifes- 
tation than  nature  to  draw  on  for  their  knowledge  of 
God  have  given  either  no  clear  conception  of  deity  or 
a  gross  one.  The  moral  Fatherhood  of  God  is  not 
known  outside  Christianity.  Even  in  the  best 
thoughts  of  paganism  it  is  but  a  guess  or  a  hope, 
never  a  conviction.  Deism  must  always  be  agnostic. 
It  may  imagine  much  ;  it  can  know  nothing.  Natu- 
ral religion  does  indeed  demonstrate  that  we  stand  in 
the  presence  of  an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy,  from 
which  all  things  proceed ;  but  any  idea  of  deity  mate- 
rially more  captivating  than  the  being  whom  Mr. 
Mill  describes  comes,  as    Mr.    Mill   declares,  "  from 


THE   IMAGE   OF   GOD.  79 

human  wishes,  or  from  the  teacning  ot  either  real  or 
pretended  revelation." 

Such  a  revelation  Christianity  avers  that  God  has 
made.  It  declares  that  God  has  given  to  his  children 
an  historical  manifestation  of  himself.  He  has  dwelt 
in  human  history,  and  had  the  story  of  his  life  re- 
corded. In  the  silent  house  the  shipwrecked  voyager 
finds  a  biography  of  his  unknown  benefactor  which 
tells  who  he  is  and  for  what  this  hospice  has  been 
erected.  It  is  not  strange  that  the  voyager  sometimes 
doubts  whether  this  book  is  a  true  record,  or  only  the 
imaginings  of  a  previous  wayfarer,  the  skillful  picture 
of  a  pious  Defoe.  But  at  all  events  his  choice  is 
between  this  book  and — nothing.  For  there  is  no 
way  conceivable  by  which  God  could  afford  an 
historical  manifestation  of  himself  except  in  human 
history.  Deism  coins  a  long  word,  anthropomorpho- 
logical,  and  flings  it  at  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
incarnation  ;  for  orthodoxy  has  no  monopoly  of  verbal 
missile  throwing.  But  pray  tell  me,  reader,  in  what 
form  could  God  manifest  his  moral  character  to  men 
except  in  human  form  ?  Could  he  take  for  a  medium 
the  dumb  brute,  or  nature  yet  more  dumb  ?  Go  call 
to  the  stars  in  their  cold  glory,  or  to  the  ocean  in 
the  majesty  of  its  might,  or  to  the  prairies  in  the 
spring  beauty  of  their  wild  flowers,  or  to  the  moun- 
tains in  their  sublime  silence,  Where  is  my  God  ?  and 
neither  star,  nor  ocean,  nor  wild  flowers  will  give 
answer,  and  the  mountain  will  only  mock    you  with 


SO  IN    AID    OF   FAITH. 

the  echo  of  your  own  outcry.  Nature  reveals  to 
its  worshipper  only  what  it  revealed  to  John  Keats, 
cloud-enveloped  on  the  summit  of  Ben  Nevis  : 

"  Read  me  a  lesson,  Muse,  and  speak  it  loud. 
Upon  the  top  of  Nevis,  blind  in  mist, 
I  look  into  the  chasms,  and  a  shroud 
Vaprous  doth  hide  them — just  so  much  I  wist 
Mankind  doth  know  of  hell ;    I  look  o'erhead, 
And  there  is  sullen  mist  ;  even  so  much 
Mankind  can  tell  of  Heaven  ;  mist  is  spread 
Before  the  earth,  beneath  me — even  such, 
Even  so  vague  is  man's  sight  of  himself. 
Here  are  the  craggy  stones  beneath  my  feet ; 
Thus  much  I  know,  that  a  poor  witless  elf, 
I  tread  on  them  ;  that  all  my  eye  doth  meet 
Is  mist  and  crag,  not  only  on  this  height, 
But  in  the  world  of  thought  and  mental  might." 

Mere  physical  things  can  never,  uninterpreted,  mani- 
fest spiritual  life.  Nature  worship  is  the  worship 
of  an  Eternal  Silence.  Christianity  is  the  worship 
of  an  Eternal  Word. 

It  is  the  doctrine  of  Christianity  that  the  Infinite 
and  Eternal  Energy,  the  Universal  Presence,  has 
entered  into  a  human  life,  and  made  it  all  his  own ; 
the  Silence  has  become  vocal,  and  vocal  in  human 
speech ;  the  Light  which  no  man  can  approach  has 
shadowed  himself,  and  so  become  visible  ;  the  Eternal 
and  Infinite  One  has  emptied  himself,  in  the  expres- 
sive language  of  Paul,  and  become  in  fashion  as  a 
man.  We  are  pilgrims  in  a  wilderness.  Egypt  at 
the  one  extremity  and  the  promised  Land  at  the 
other  are   equally    unknown  to  us.      The   Word    has 


THE   IMAGE   OF  GOD.  8l 

taken  up  its  dwelling  with  us,  and  been  tented  in  the 
camp,  that  we  might  know  him.  He  has  lived  in  a 
human  life  that  we  might  see  and  know  what  his 
divine  life  is  ;  that  by  seeing  what  Jesus  was  in  the 
little  space  of  thirty- three  years,  and  in  the  little  prov- 
ince of  Palestine,  we  might  see  what  the  Eternal  One 
is  in  the  infinite  universe  and  throughout  the  ever- 
lasting ages. 

Two  things  are  to  be  said  respecting  this  doctrine 
of  the  historical  manifestation  and  disclosure  of 
God.  First,  it  is  nowhere  said  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, nor  is  it  the  doctrine  of  the  Christian  Church, 
that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  God.  This  has  been 
sometimes  said  by  theological  teachers  in  the  heat 
of  theological  controversy,  and  infidelity  has  seized 
upon  and  taken  advantage  of  the  erroneous  de- 
claration ;  but  it  is  not  the  declaration  of  the  Bible 
nor  of  discriminating  Christian  scholarship.  It 
is,  in  truth,  unthinkable  that  God  should  be  a 
man,  that  God  should  hunger  and  thirst  and  sleep, 
that  God  should  be  sent  from  God  and  pray  to  God. 
What  the  New  Testament  declares  is  that  God  was 
in  Christ ;  that  Christ  was  God  manifest  in  the  flesh; 
that  Christ  was  the  image  of  God  and  the  brightness 
of  his  glory ;  that  there  is  one  God  and  one  mediator 
between  God  and  man — the  man  Christ  Jesus ;  that 
the  Word  which  was  with  God  and  was  God  was 
made  flesh  and  tabernacled  among  us.  Look 
through  the  telescope ;  do  you  see  Saturn  and  its 
6 


82  IN    AID    OF   FAITH. 

rings  ?  Yes.  Oh,  no  !  you  see  a  reflected  or  re- 
fracted image.  If  Saturn  and  its  rings  were  where 
the  image  is  they  would  be  far  too  large  for  your 
eye  to  take  in  the  vision.  Christ  is  the  image  of 
God — God  brought  within  the  compass  of  a  human 
vision  ;  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  In  a  true  sense 
God  is  forever  manifesting  himself  in  human  lives. 
But  these  lives  are  only  single  colors ;  in  Jesus  Christ 
all  the  colors  of  the  spectrum  are  woven  together  in- 
to a  single  perfect  ray.  In  others  they  are  maimed 
and  broken  by  the  human  atmosphere  through  which 
they  are  refracted ;  in  him  they  are  as  clear  as  when 
they  first  issued  from  the  sun.  The  noblest  hu- 
man lives  speak  of  God  only  in  divers  portions  and 
in  divers  manners,  broken,  fragmentary,  imperfect ; 
Christ's  life  is  the  perfect  Word.  In  other  lives 
God  is  a  pilot,  but  the  human  will  still  holds  the 
helm,  and  is  slow  to  obey,  or  obeys  not.  In  Christ's 
life  God  holds  the  helm,  and  every  movement  is  the 
movement  of  his  perfect  will.  That  God  should 
become  a  man — this  would  be  incredible ;  but  that 
God  should  so  enter  into  a  human  life,  and  so  fill  it 
with  his  own  affluent  being,  that  it  should  become 
the  manifestation  of  himself  to  men — why  should 
this  be  deemed  incredible  ? 

The  other  thing  that  is  to  be  said  is  that  Jesus 
Christ  manifests  not  merely  the  attributes  or  qualities 
of  God,  but  God  himself,  God's  own  personality. 
Some  years  ago  a  young  man  in  the  West  sent  me  his 


THE  IMAGE  OF  GOD.  83 

photograph  with  a  description  of  himself,  and  asked  me 
to  find  a  wife  for  him.  I  declined.  If  he  had  accom- 
panied his  photograph  with  a  phrenological  chart, 
showing  that  in  him  conscientiousness,  and  reverence, 
and  benevolence,  and  constructivness,  and  comparison, 
and  causality  were  all  very  large,  and  approbativeness, 
and  acquisitiveness,  and  self-esteem,  andcombativeness, 
and  destructiveness  were  all  very  small,  I  should  still 
have  declined.  For  we  do  not  love  qualitiesbut  per- 
sons. Men  may  court  by  proxy,  and  marry  by  proxy, 
as  kings  have  sometimes  done  ;  but  they  cannot  love 
by  proxy.  The  real  difference  between  all  Socinian  and 
Arian  views  of  Christ  on  the  one  hand,  and  all  Evan- 
gelical views  on  the  other,  consist  in  their  different  con- 
ception of  his  character  in  this  regard.  To  the  Uni- 
tarian, Christ  is  a  messenger  sent  from  God  ;  man,  an- 
gel, archangel,or  super-archangel ;  still  only  an  ambas- 
sador. Entrusted,  perhaps,  with  a  divine  message  ;  en- 
dowed, perhaps,  with  divine  qualities ;  but  still  only 
an  ambassador.  To  Evangelical  faith  he  is  the  man- 
ifestation of  God  himself,  God  is  in  him ;  he  comes 
bringing  not  lessons  from  God,  not  knowledge  about 
God,  but  God  himself.  Both  recognize  the  light 
which  shines  from  him  to  be  a  divine  light ;  but  one 
sees  in  it  only  that  light  reflected,  the  other  the  origi- 
nal light.  To  one  he  is  the  moon,  the  sun  is  still  un- 
known ;  to  the  other  he  is  the  sun,  not  in  its  undim- 
med  glory  and  grandeur,  which  the  eye  could  not  look 
upon  unblinded,  but  still  the  sun,  though  adumbrated 


84  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

and  brought  within  the  power  of  human  vision.  We 
see  not  a  message  from  God,  but  God  himself,  though 
in  a  glass,  darkly. 

Those  spiritual  truths  which  have  no  relation  to  us 
we  need  not  care  to  know ;  we  may  study  them  if  we 
will,  but  it  behooves  us  neither  to  be  dogmatic  in  our 
assertions  respecting  them,  nor  worried  because  we 
can  assert  nothing.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  those 
truths  which  are  directly  related  to  our  spiritual  life. 
We  can  safely  postpone  determining  what  relation  the 
sufferings  and  death  of  Christ  bear  to  God  until  we  de- 
termine what  relation  they  bear  to  us  ;  and  what  the 
sacred  writings  are  to  our  own  souls  is  more  important 
for  us  to  ascertain  than  what  the  divine  spirit  was  to 
the  authors  who  wrote  them.  A  great  deal  of  theol- 
ogy is  philosophy  about  the  other  side  of  the  moon  ;  it 
may  be  wise  deduction,  it  may  be  foolish  guessing;  but 
it  is  of  wholly  secondary  importance.  What  are  the  re- 
lations of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
each  other  in  the  Godhead,  it  does  not  greatly  concern 
us  to  know.  For  myself  I  object  to  speculations  con- 
cerning them  only  when  they  are  dogmatic,  and  to 
skepticism  concerning  them  only  when  it  is  a  sneer. 
All  discussion  about  equality  and  non-equality,  about 
generation,  eternal  or  otherwise,  about  proceeding  from 
the  Father,  or  proceeding  from  the  Father  and  Son, 
about  Homoousian  and  Homoiousian,  and  all  explan- 
atory phrases,  such  as  three  in  substance  and  one  in 
essence,  or  three  Persons  in  one  God,  are  meaningless 


THE   IMAGE    OF    GOD.  85 

to  me.  I  neither  believe  nor  disbelieve,  neither  accept 
nor  reject  them.  I  do  not  find  them  in  the  Bible  ;  nor 
in  them  any  help  in  understanding  what  the  Bible 
means — rather  some  hindrance.  They  convey  no 
meaning  to  my  mind  and  no  sustenance  to  my  spirit. 
If  others  find  in  them  either  light  or  food,  why  object  ? 
But  for  those  who  do  not,  it  is  enough  to  know  what 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit  are  to  human  lives.  That 
we  must  know,  for  on  knowing  that  our  highest,  tru- 
est, best  life  depends.  If  that  be  eclipsed,  the  world 
is  in  darkness.  And  that  we  can  know,  for  that  rela- 
tion is  revealed  in  Scripture,  and  that  revelation  is 
attested  by  Christian  consciousness  :  the  Father,  the 
Infinite  and  Eternal  Life  from  whom  all  things  pro- 
ceed ;  the  Son,  that  Life  manifested  historically  in  a 
human  life  and  in  an  earthly  sphere ;  the  Spirit,  that 
life  wrought  into  our  life  and  become  our  great  Com- 
panion. In  nature  we  know  there  is  a  God ;  in 
Christ  we  know  about  God ;  in  the  Holy  Spirit  we 
know  God  himself. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

COME  AND  SEE. 

THE  reasons  for  the  Christian's  faith  in  Christ 
cannot  be  stated.  They  are  unverifiable. 
There  are  reasons  which  can  be  stated,  but  they  are 
not  the  reasons.  Character  is  always  and  of  itself  its 
own  authentication.  We  may  believe  about  a  man 
for  reasons ;  we  believe  in  him  only  for  what  he  is  to 
us.  Faith  is  a  spiritual  sense,  and  it  is  only  commu- 
nicated spiritually ;  it  goes  by  contact,  not  by  argu- 
ment. The  child  cannot  tell  why  he  believes  in  his 
mother ;  neither  can  I  tell  why  I  believe  in  Christ ;  I 
can  only  say,  "  Come  and  see."  The  individual 
doubter  must  grow  into  appreciation  of  Christ  as  the 
world  has  grown  into  appreciation  of  Christ.  Love 
at  first  sight  there  doubtless  is  ;  but  it  is  neither  the 
healthiest  nor  the  most  permanent  love. 

It  is  necessary  to  make  this  clear  at  the  outset,  be- 
cause I  am  sure  the  attempt  to  authenticate  Christ's 
character  by  the  argument  from  miracles  is  a  misuse 
of  the  argument,  and  false  reasoning  always  weakens 
the  cause  it  endeavors  to  make  strong.  External 
evidence  may  authenticate  a  commission,  but  never 
86 


COME   AND    SEE.  87 

character.  The  great  seal  of  England  may  prove 
that  my  Lord  So-and-so  is  an  ambassador,  but  not 
that  he  is  a  man.  Nicodemus  drew  all  the  conclu- 
sion from  the  miracles  which  the  miracles  alone  war- 
rant :  "  We  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come  from 
God,  for  no  man  can  do  those  miracles  that  thou  dost 
except  God  be  with  him."  The  resurrection  of  Je- 
sus Christ  seems  to  me,  on  the  whole,  the  best  attest- 
ed fact  of  ancient  history ;  but  the  character  of  Jesus 
Christ  does  not  depend  upon  it.  We  believe  in  the 
resurrection  because  we  believe  in  Christ,  not  in 
Christ  because  we  believe  in  the  resurrection. 

It  is  not  resurrection,  but  Christ's  resurrection, 
which  seems  credible  to  us.  If  it  were  alleged  that 
Siddartha,  or  Mohammed,  or  Swedenborg,  or  Joe 
Smith  rose  from  the  dead,  we  should  not  care  to  in- 
vestigate the  allegation.  The  fact  would  seem  in  the 
first  place  incredible,  and  in  the  second  place  insigni- 
ficant. Even  if  it  were  proved  that  Joe  Smith  rose 
from  the  dead,  I  should  not  turn  Mormon.  I  might 
wonder  at  the  phenomenon,  but  I  should  not  admire 
the  character.  The  resurrection  of  Christ  seems  to 
us  credible  because  it  is  the  natural  consummation 
of  a  superhuman  life,  and  important  because  it  is  the 
authentication  of  a  character  which  first  authenticated 
itself.  If  one  does  not  believe  in  the  character,  it  is 
not  to  be  expected  that  he  will  believe  in  the  mira- 
cle ;  and  it  is  of  little  consequence  whether  he  does 
or  not     The  Bible  abundantly  recognizes  this  very 


88  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

simple  and  self-evident  truth,  that  character  must  be 
its  own  authentication,  and  that  no  external  creden- 
tials can  justify  a  demand  on  our  faith  in  a  person 
whose  character  has  not  first  justified  that  demand. 
"  If  there  arise  among  you,"  said  the  Mosaic  Statute, 
"  a  prophet  or  dreamer  of  dreams,  and  giveth  thee  a 
sign  or  wonder,  and  the  sign  or  wonder  come  to  pass 
whereof  he  spake  to  thee,  saying,  '  Let  us  go  after 
other  gods  which  thou  hast  not  known,  and  let  us 
serve  them,'  thou  shalt  not  hearken  unto  that  prophet 
or  that  dreamer  of  dreams."  What  is  this  but  say- 
ing that  no  miracle  can  attest  character ;  that  the 
primary  evidence  of  truth  and  for  truth  is  the  truth 
itself,  of  character  and  for  character  is  the  character 
itself  ?  Christ  rarely  if  ever  wrought  miracles  to 
convince  unbelievers,  and  rarely  if  ever  appealed  to 
them  before  unbelievers.  He  was  often  asked  by 
them  to  work  a  miracle,  and  habitually  refused.  He 
first  attested  himself  to  his  own  by  his  life,  and  then 
verified  their  faith  by  his  works.  When  Nathaniel 
doubted  whether  any  good  could  come  out  of  Naza- 
reth, Philip  gave  not  only  the  proper  answer,  he 
gave  the  only  possible  answer,  "  Come  and  see." 
Goodness  cannot  be  proved,  it  must  be  seen.  When 
John  the  Baptist  in  prison  sent  two  of  his  disciples 
to  ascertain  whether  Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  Jesus 
went  on  with  his  ministry  and  told  the  messengers  to 
return  to  their  master  and  tell  him  what  they  had 
seen  and  heard.     The  soul  must  look  and  then  draw 


COME   AND    SEE.  89 

its  own  conclusions ;  and  each  soul  for  itself.  If 
when  we  see  him  there  is  no  beauty  in  him  that  we 
should  desire  him,  nothing  remains  to  be  said.  The 
thoughtful  soul  will  inquire  whether  the  fault  is  in 
the  seeing  or  the  seen;  the  thoughtless  soul  must 
e'en  be  allowed  to  go  its  own  way. 

There  are  two  designs  in  miracles.  First,  they 
compel  attention.  "  Jesus,"  says  Renan,  "  had  to 
choose  between  these  two  alternatives,  either  to  re- 
nounce his  mission  or  to  become  a  wonder-worker." 
Perhaps  God  knew  this  as  well  as  Renan.  If  wonders 
were  necessary  to  the  success  of  the  mission,  there  is 
no  reason  why  they  should  have  been  wanting;  and 
they  certainly  were  necessary.  If  there  had  been  no 
resurrection  there  would  be  no  Christianity ;  the  dis- 
ciples would  have  gone  back  to  their  fishing,  Christ's 
teaching  would  have  slept  with  him  in  his  tomb,  Juda- 
ism, summoned  from  death,  would  have  fallen  back 
into  death,  again.  This  amusement  is  needed  no  lon- 
ger. Christianity  is  itself  a  greater  miracle  than  any 
which  Christ  performed  while  on  the  earth.  In  the 
first  century  men  believed  in  Christianity  because  they 
believed  in  the  resurrection  ;  in  the  nineteenth  century 
they  believe  in  the  resurrection  because  they  believe 
in  Christianity.  Miracles  are  also  needed  to  verify 
truth  intellectually  after  it  has  been  spiritually  appre- 
hended. We  perceive  Christ's  divinity  in  his  life 
and  character ;  still,  we  should  be  slow  to  believe  his 
declaration — I  am  from  above,  ye  are  from  beneath — - 


90  IN  AID   OF   FAITH. 

if  there  were  not  some  sensible  sign  accompanying 
the  spiritual  quality.  The  miracle  can  never  make 
an  unbeliever  a  believer ;  but  it  may  give  assurance 
to  the  believer's  belief.  It  is  to  his  friends,  not  to 
his  enemies,  Christ  says,  "Believe  me,  that  I  am  in 
the  Father  and  the  Father  in  me,  or  else  believe  me 
for  the  very  work's  sake." 

The  evidence  for  the  character  of  Christ  is  the  char- 
acter itself.  There  is  and  can  be  no  other.  When,  a 
few  years  ago,  the  artists  were  busy  discussing  the 
question  whether  the  Madonna  at  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  was  really  the  work  of  Raphael  or  not,  they 
made  very  little  of  the  historical  evidence.  The  discus- 
sion turned  almost  wholly  on  the  qualities  in  the  paint- 
ing itself.  An  act  of  Parliament  might  determine  the 
lawful  authority  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  but  whether  he 
was  a  genius,  fanatic,  or  impostor  can  be  determined 
only  by  an  analysis  and  study  of  the  man.  There  is  no 
royal  road  to  this  learning.  To  learn  Christ  is  the 
problem  of  a  lifetime.  The  ages  have  been  studying 
him,  and  the  world  has  not  learned  him  yet;  do  not 
expect  to  find  the  learning  put  here  in  a  paragraph. 
This  is  not  a  study  that  one  can  do  for  another.  Come 
and  see.  If  one  must  have  the  results  of  another's 
study,  I  recommend  to  him  the  little  monograph  on 
the  "  Character  of  Jesus,"  by  Horace  Bushnell. 
If  one  is  willing  to  get  those  results  by  his  own 
work,  I  recommend  a  meditative  study  of  the  life 


COME   AND    SEE.  91 

itself,  either  in  one  of  the  Gospels  or  in  such  a 
harmony  of  the  Gospels  as  is  furnished  by  J.  R.  Gil- 
more's  '.'  Gospel  History."  But  the  best  way,  the 
only  true,  real  way,  is  that  which  Jesus  pointed  out 
himself — the  way  of  life.  He  who  will  take  the  life 
of  Christ  and  follow  it,  the  character  of  Christ,  and 
model  himself  after  it,  will  find  himself  growing  into 
sympathy  with  Christ,  and  so  into  power  to  ap- 
preciate his  divinity.  It  is  only  the  pure  in  heart  that 
see  God;  and  only  as  the  heart  is  purified  that  it  sees 
God  in  Christ. 

In  no  narrow  or  narrowing  sense  are  we  to  be  or 
can  we  be  imitators,  even,  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  His 
life  was  such  that  his  followers  cannot,  if  they  would, 
lose  their  individuality  in  following  him.  That  life 
throws  very  little  light  on  either  specific  relations  or 
specific  duties.  Most  of  us  are  engaged  in  commer- 
cial and  industrial  relations.  We  have  no  record  of 
any  bargain  that  Christ  ever  made.  Most  of  us  live 
in  family  relations.  He  was  neither  a  husband  nor  a 
father,  and  almost  nothing  is  told  us  of  the  period  of 
his  childhood.  We  are  citizens  of  a  free  common- 
wealth. He  lived  in  an  age  and  under  a  government 
such  that  obedience  to  the  constituted  authorities  was 
the  only  duty  of  citizenship.  We  cannot  walk  in  his 
footsteps,  as  we  are  often  exhorted  to  do ;  the  figure 
is  a  false,  though  a  common,  one.  We  are  to  follow 
him,  not  as  a  child  his  father  through  the  forest,  but 


92  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

as  every  ship  which  has  ever  sailed  from  Europe  for 
this  western  Continent  has  followed  Columbus,  while 
yet  it  has  made  its  own  path  across  the  trackless  sea. 
To  follow  Christ  is  not  to  imitate  his  actions,  but  to 
imbibe  his  spirit ;  and  the  structureless  structure  of 
his  life  happily  gives  us  no  alternative.  It  is  not  a 
model  in  which  any  life  can  be  cast,  and  therefore  it 
is  an  inspiration  for  all  living.  That  life  is  equally  an 
inspiration  to  all  races  and  all  nationalities.  He 
belongs  to  no  age,  to  no  country,  to  no  race,  and  by 
and  by  we  shall  learn  that  he  belongs  to  no  religion. 
He  belongs  to  humanity  and  to  God.  He  was  a  Jew, 
but  he  is  in  no  sense  Jewish.  The  Jewish  character 
has  been  sordid  and  worldly  from  the  time  of  bar- 
gaining Jacob  to  the  present  day  ;  there  was  no  sign 
of  the  sordid  and  selfish  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  It  has 
been  narrow  and  exclusive  ;  no  character  in  history 
so  catholic  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  In  its  highest  phases 
it  has  been  Pharisaic,  ruled  by  a  conscience  always 
exacting  and  generally  ceremonial ;  no  life  so  free,  so 
joyous,  so  regardless  of  what  I  may  call  the  mere  eti- 
quette of  religion  as  that  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  In 
these  three  great  characteristics  of  Hebrew  character 
he  is  the  antipode  of  his  race,  yet  in  neither  react- 
ing against  them,  as  Carlyle  against  the  legalism  of 
Scotland,  or  Emerson  against  the  intellectualism  of 
New  England.  He  is  as  free  from  asceticism  as  from 
worldliness,  from  a  sentimental  philanthropism  as 
from  a  narrow  dogmatism;  and  from  license  and  law- 


COME   AND    SEE.  93 

lessness  as  from  bondage  to  the  law.  Each  of  these 
reactions  has  been  exhibited,  and  on  a  large  scale,  in 
the  church  which  grew  from  his  grave;  but  neither  of 
them  finds  the  slightest  warrant  in  his  life.  He  is  not 
Jewish,  nor  anti-Jewish,  but  human.  The  German, 
the  Frenchman,  the  Englishman,  and  the  American,  all 
find  in  him  a  Master  transcending  all  national  pecu- 
liarities, yet  prohibiting  none.  The  Roman  Catho- 
lic in  the  great  cathedral,  and  the  Methodist  itinerant 
in  the  greater  cathedral  of  the  primeval  forest,  alike 
look  up  to  and  worship  him  with  no  thought  of  the 
incongruity  upon  which  he  looks  kindly  and  sympa- 
thetically down.  We  have,  indeed,  until  lately,  re- 
garded Jesus  as  essentially  Occidental,  by  a  kind  of 
anachronism  imagining  him  like  ourselves,  because 
we  had  endeavored  to  become  like  him.  But  now 
comes  Mozoomdar  with  his  "  Oriental  Christ,"  and 
claims  him  as  equally  the  prophet  of  the  land  of  the 
Orient,  the  type  of  manhood  for  meditative  India  as 
for  bustling  America,  the  model  of  dreamy  thought 
as  of  ceaseless  action.  There  is  no  other  character 
in  history  which  is  thus  accepted  as  the  ideal  of  man- 
hood and  the  disclosure  of  Godhood  by  men  of  all 
races,  nationalities,  creeds,  and  rituals. 

What  is  more  inexplicable  is  the  fact  that  he  who 
transcends  all  distinctions  of  race  transcends  also  the 
universal  distinction  of  sex,  and  is  accepted  alike  by 
the  most  refined  and  delicate  women  and  the  most 
heroic  men  as  their  ideal.     A  womanly  man   and  a 


94  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

manly  woman  are  alike  the  object  of  a  commingled 
feeling  of  horror  and  contempt.  How  one  who  is 
neither  an  effeminate  man  nor  a  masculine  woman 
can  be  a  model  for  both  men  and  women  is  a  puz- 
zle not  to  be  solved  intellectually ;  not  to  be  solved 
at  all  until,  in  the  development  of  womanhood,  we 
have  reached  a  truer  conception  of  sex  as  a  mental 
and  moral  fact  in  human  life,  and  a  truer  conception 
of  the  mystic  declaration  that  u  God  created  man  In 
his  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  he  him, 
male  and  female  created  he  them  ;"  as  a  hint  of  the 
qualities  in  Him  who  mirrors  himself  in  his  daughters 
no  less  than  in  his  sons.  Hitherto  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  pre-eminence  has  been  given  both  in 
art  and  literature  to  the  more  delicate  and  tender 
side  of  Christ's  character,  because  he  has  been  the 
theme  of  the  poet  and  the  recluse,  rather  than  of  the 
man  of  action. 

But  we  are  beginning  to  perceive  dimly  the  manli- 
ness of  Christ ;  to  see  in  him  a  hero  above  all  other 
heroes.  It  is  often  said  that  there  is  no  pen-and-ink 
portrait  of  Jesus  in  the  New  Testament,  and  the  lack 
has  often  been  lamented.  It  is  true  ;  yet  it  contains 
a  symbolical  picture  which  suggests  some  features  of 
his  impressive  presence.  The  vision  which  John  saw 
in  spirit  on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  which  recalled  to  him 
the  Son  of  man,  had  eyes  like  a  flame  of  fire,  and  feet 
like  fine  brass,  and  a  voice  as  the  sound  of  many  wa- 
ters.    I  wonder  whether  John  remembered  that  day 


COME    AND    SEE.  95 

when  alone,  with  flashing  eyes,  and  a  martial  tread, 
and  a  voice  of  thunder,  Christ  drove  from  the  Temple 
courts,  the  traffickers  who  disgraced  it ;  or  that  hour 
when,  with  his  face  steadfastly  set,  he  went  up  to 
Jerusalem,  his  disciples  following  behind,  not  ventur- 
ing to  question  him,  and  whispering  to  one  another 
beneath  their  breath ;  or  that  day  when  the  mob  in 
Jerusalem  took  up  stones  to  stone  him,  and  he  pass- 
ed through  their  midst  unharmed,  while  they  parted 
before  him  like  the  waves  of  the  Red  Sea  at  Aaron's 
rod ;  or  that  night  when  the  Temple  police  came  out 
to  arrest  him  and  he  came  from  his  praying  to  meet 
them,  and  put  himself  between  them  and  his  affright- 
ed disciples,  just  awakened  from  their  sleep,  and  de- 
manded of  the  police  sternly  whom  they  sought,  and 
held  them  at  bay  by  the  mere  power  of  his  presence 
till  his  disciples  gathered  their  scattered  wits  and  fled. 
We  have  not  completed  our  study  of  Christ  till  we 
have  looked  both  on  the  picture  of  him  stooping 
and  writing  on  the  ground  that  he  might  not  fur- 
ther abash  the  shrinking  adulteress  at  his  side,  until 
her  last  accuser  had  gone  out ;  and  that  other  picture 
of  him  standing  in  the  Temple  and  pouring  out  upon 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites,  an  invective  of 
scorn  which  has  no  parallel  in  either  ancient  or  mod- 
ern literature. 

Transcending  all  distinctions  of  individual  idiosyn- 
crasy, of  race  and  nationality,  and  even  of  sex,  the 
character  of  Christ  transcends  also  all  the  progress 


g6  IN    AID    OF   FAITH. 

of  the  ages.  He  still  marches  at  the  head  of  humani- 
ty; and  the  world,  after  eighteen  centuries,  has  much 
to  learn  before  it  has  learned  him,  and  much  to  do  be- 
fore it  has  become  him.  The  influence  of  most  men 
dies  with  them ;  if  in  some  few  instances  it  survives,  it 
grows  less  and  less  as  the  years  pass  on.  First  a 
power,  then  an  influence,  then  only  a  memory :  of 
whom  is  not  this  true,  if  we  except  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth ?  In  his  case  the  reverse  is  true.  He  died  in 
darkness  and  amid  scorn  and  contumely.  The  relig- 
ion of  Judea,  the  culture  of  Greece,  the  power  of 
Rome,  knew  him  not.  The  few  faithful  friends  who 
still  clung  to  his  memory  were  not  too  many  to  be 
contained  in  one  upper  chamber.  To-day  his  name 
fills  the  world ;  the  cross,  emblem  of  ignominy,  on 
which  he  seemed  to  perish,  but  was  crowned,  holds 
out  its  arms  as  in  benediction  upon  many  a  village 
christening  about  the  churches  consecrated  to  his  ser- 
vice, and  is  worn  as  the  outward  symbol  of  the  heart's 
adoration  on  many  a  woman's  breast;  and  the  last 
eighty  years  of  the  church's  life  sees  a  greater  access- 
ion to  his  followers,  than  the  total  growth  of  all  the 
eighteen  hundred  years  which  preceded.  The  scoffs 
and  sneers  of  infidelity  are  silenced,  not  by  the  argu- 
ments of  Christian  scholars,  but  by  the  character  of 
Christ  himself;  and  Renan,  Hooykaas,  and  John 
Stuart  Mill  join  in  ascriptions  of  honor  to  his  name 
and  in  expressions  of  gratitude  for  his  influence. 
"  Whatever  else  may  be  taken  away  from  us,"  says 


COME    AND    SEE.  97 

John  Stuart  Mill,  "  by  rational  criticism,  Christ  is 
still  left ;  a  unique  figure,  not  more  unlike  all  his 
precursors  than  all  his  followers,  even  those  who  had 
the  direct  benefit  of  his  personal  teaching.  It  is  of  no 
use  to  say  that  Christ,  as  exhibited  in  the  Gospels,  is 
not  historical,  and  that  we  know  not  how  much  of 
what  is  admirable  has  been  superadded  by  the  tradi- 
tion of  his  followers.  The  tradition  of  followers 
suffices  to  insert  any  number  of  marvels,  and 
may  have  inserted  all  the  miracles  which  he  is 
reputed  to  have  wrought.  But  who  among  his 
disciples,  or  among  their  proselytes,  was  capable  of 
inventing  the  sayings  ascribed  to  Jesus,  or  of  imagin- 
ing the  life  and  character  revealed  in  the  Gospels  ? 
Certainly  not  the  fishermen  of  Galilee  :  as  certainly 
not  St.  Paul,  whose  character  and  idiosyncrasies  were 
of  a  totally  different  sort ;  still  less  the  early  Christian 
writers,  in  whom  nothing  is  more  evident  than  that 
the  good  which  was  in  them  was  all  derived,  as 
they  always  professed  that  it  was  derived,  from  the 

higher    source About  the    life  and   sayings 

of  Jesus  there  is  a  stamp  of  personal  originality  com- 
bined with  profundity  of  insight,  which,  if  we  aban- 
don the  idle  expectation  of  finding  scientific  precision 
where  something  very  different  was  aimed  at,  must 
place  the  Prophet  of  Nazareth,  even  in  the  estimation 
of  those  who  have  no  belief  in  his  inspiration,  in  the 
very  first  rank  of  the  men  of  sublime  genius  of  whom 
our  species  can  boast.  When  this  preeminent  genius 
7 


98  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

is  combined  with  the  qualities  of  probably  the  great- 
est moral  reformer  and  martyr  to  that  mission  who 
ever  existed  upon  earth,  religion  cannot  be  said  to 
have  made  a  bad  choice  in  pitching  on  this  man  as 
the  ideal  representative  and  guide  of  humanity  ;  nor 
even  now,  would  it  be  easy,  even  for  an  unbeliever, 
to  find  a  better  translation  of  the  rule  of  virtue  from 
the  abstract  into  the  concrete  than  to  endeavor  so  to 
live  that  Christ  would  approve  our  life." 

It  is  safe  to  assume  that  none  of  my  readers  have 
less  religious  faith  than  John  Stuart  Mill.  To  such  as 
have  no  more  I  recommend  his  counsel.  Accept 
Jesus  Christ  as  your  "  ideal  representative  and  guide," 
and  translate  the  rule  of  virtue  from  the  abstract  in- 
to the  concrete  by  an  endeavor  so  to  live  that  Christ 
will  approve  your  life.  So  you  will  grow,  as  the 
world  has  grown,  into  a  knowledge  of  him.  This  is 
what  I  mean  by  "  Come  and  see." 


CHAPTER   IX. 

"YE      KNOW      HIM." 

NO  English  writer  except  Shakespeare  has  sur- 
passed George  Eliot  in  keen  insight  into  hu- 
man life  and  the  power  of  truthfulness  in  portraying  it. 
And  no  scene  in  George  Eliot's  dramas  surpasses  in 
dramatic  power  the  prison  scene  in  "  Adam  Bede,"  be- 
tween Dinah  Morris  and  Hetty.  Hetty  is  to  be  exe- 
cuted on  the  morrow  for  the  murder  of  her  babe  ;  and 
Dinah  has  come  to  bring  her  to  repentance  and  to  God. 

"  You  won't  leave  me,  Dinah  ?  You'll  keep  close 
to  me  ?  " 

"  No,  Hetty,  I  won't  leave  you.  I'll  stay  with  you 
to  the  last.  But,  Hetty,  there  is  some  one  else  in 
this  cell,  besides  me,  some  one  close  to  you." 

Hetty  says,  in  a  frightened  whisper,  "  Who  ?  " 

"  Some  one  who  has  been  with  you  through  all 
your  hours  of  sin  and  trouble,  who  has  known  every 
thought  you  have  had,  has  seen  where  you  went, 
when  you  lay  down  and  rose  up  again,  and  a(l  the 
deeds  you  have  tried  to  hide  in  darkness.  And  on 
Monday,  when  I  can't  follow  you,  when  my  arms 
can't  reach  you,  when  death  has  parted   us,  He  who 

99 


IOO  IN    AID    OF   FAITH. 

is  with  us  now  and  knows  all  will  be  with  you  then. 
It  makes  no  difference  whether  we  live  or  die,  we 
are  in  the  presence  of  God." 

Curious  enigma,  that    such  a    picture    should  be 
painted    by    one    who,    several    months  before,    had 
written  of  herself  that  she  did  not  believe  in  a  crea- 
tive cause.     Was  it  the  unconscious  testimony   of  a 
woman's  faith  to  a  present  God,  a  faith  which  neither 
her  literary  fellowship   with   Strauss  and   Feuerbach, 
nor  her  personal  fellowship  with   George  Lewis   and 
Herbert  Spencer,  had  yet  been  able   to   stifle  ?     Was 
it  the  vision  of  a  clear  eye  before  as  yet  the  eyesight 
had  been  dimmed  ?     Does  it  take  its  place  with  John 
Stuart  Mill's  testimony  to  Jesus,  as  the  witness  of  an 
unbeliever,  despite  himself,  to  the  truth  of  the  spirit- 
ual  life  ?     Or  was  it  only  a  dramatist's  picture  of 
human  emotion  ?     Was  George  Eliot  the  philosopher 
or  George  Eliot  the  dramatist  the  real  George  Eliot  ? 
That  is  a  curious  question  in   character  study,  but 
one  not  necessary  for  us  to  answer  here.     For  in 
either  case  the  scene  is  an  unconscious  witness  to  the 
truth  of  Dinah  Morris's  vision.     The  dramatist  does 
not  create,  he  represents;  and  whether  George  Eliot 
believed  in  her  atheism  and  only  imagined  her  God, 
or  believed  in  God  and  only  imagined  her  atheism, 
she  portrayed  truth,  and  truth  which  for  the  moment 
she  saw,  when  she  reported  Dinah  Morris's  assertion : 
"  There  is  some  one  in  the  cell  besides  me,  some  one 
close  to  you." 


"YE    KNOW    HIM."  ',,'  >  »?  >     IOI 

This  truth  of  a  present  God  is  the1  consummate' 
truth  of  divine  revelation  and  of  human  experience. 
All  else  in  revelation  leads  up  to  this ;  all  else  in  re- 
ligious experience  prepares  for  and  grows  out  of  this. 
Nature  assures  us  that  there  is  a  God,  the  Christ  of 
eighteen  centuries  ago  tells  who  he  is,  that  we 
may  spiritually  enter  into  fellowship  and  have 
acquaintance  with  him.  That  he  has  the  power  of 
directly  and  immediately  communicating  with  man, 
that  man  has  the  power  of  directly  and  immediately 
entering  into  communication  with  him,  these  two 
correlative  truths  are  the  ultimate  disclosure  of  reve- 
lation and  the  ultimate  fact  of  experience. 

I  do  not  wonder  at  skepticism  without  the  church  in 
this  fact  of  spiritual  experience,  since  it  is  hardly  be- 
lieved within  the  church.  "  I  will  not  leave  you  or- 
phans," said  Christ,  as  he  was  about  to  depart.  The 
great  majority  of  Christians  seem  to  be  orphans. 
They  believe  in  a  Father  that  once  was  ;  they  believe 
in  a  Father  that  is  yet  to  be  ;  but  they  do  not  believe 
in  a  Father  that  now  is  ;  in  a  living  God ;  in  a  Per- 
petual Presence.  Their  religion  is  a  memory  or  a 
hope,  not  a  present  life.  They  relegate  divine  inspir- 
ation to  past  ages,  and  postpone  divine  fellowship  to 
future  ages.  They  are  like  men  in  a  tunnel,  who  look 
back  and  see  the  light  at  the  end  they  have  entered, 
and  look  forward  and  see  the  light  at  the  end  from 
which  they  are  to  emerge ;  but  now  are  in  the  dark- 
ness.    To  think  that  God  did  not  guide  Moses  is  in- 


102  IN    AID    OF   FAITH. 

fidel';  but  it  seems  to  them  almost  as  infidel  to  believe 
that  he  did  guide  Abraham  Lincoln.  To  doubt  that 
he  dwelt  with  his  people  in  Palestine  is  unbelief ;  to 
think  that  he  dwells  with  his  people  in  the  United 
States  is  presumption.  What  Peter  means  by  the  prom- 
ise, "  Ye  shall  receive  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  the  prom- 
ise is  to  you  and  to  your  children,  and  to  all  that  are 
afar  off;"  what  Paul  means  by  the  prayer,  "  That 
Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith,  that  ye  may 
be  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God  ;"  what  John 
means  by  the  declaration,  "  Our  fellowship  is  with 
the  Father  and  with  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ/'  they  do 
not  know.  He  who  attempts  to  interpret  these  and 
kindred  utterances  seems  to  them  mystical,  visionary, 
dangerous.  They  believe  in  a  voice  that  once  spoke, 
but  not  in  a  voice  now  speaking ;  they  listen  to  the 
echo,  and  try  to  be  content.  Their  God  exists  for 
them  only  in  the  pluperfect  and  the  future-perfect 
tenses,  not  in  the  present  tense.  They  believe  in  "  I 
was  that  I  was,"  and  in  "  I  shall  be  that  I  shall  be," 
but  not  in  "  I  am  that  I  am." 

I  believe  that  the  larger  faith  is  easier  than  the 
faith  that  is  provincial  and  epochal ;  faith  in  a  univer- 
sal God  is  easier  than  faith  in  a  God  local  and  episo- 
dical. It  is  easier  to  believe  in  the  God  of  Abraham, 
of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob,  if  we  also  believe  in  the  demon 
of  Socrates  ;  easier  to  believe  in  the  faith  faculty  of 
Paul  if  we  also  believe  in  the  Yoga  faculty  of  Baboo 
Chunder  Sen.       The  lines  of  communication  haveal- 


"YE   KNOW    HIM."  IO3 

ways  been  open  between  God  and  the  souls  of  men. 
Inspiration  belongs  neither  to  times,  to  races,  nor  to 
individuals,  but  to  humanity.  Inspiration,  as  it  is  lim- 
ited to  no  people,  so  to  no  mental  faculty.  The  God 
who  inspired  Moses  to  frame  laws,  inspired  Bezaleel  to 
design  the  tabernacle.  Art,  literature,  music  have  felt 
the  impulse  of  divine  in-breathings  as  truly  as  law, 
ethics,  and  theology.  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God 
is  upon  me,"  said  the  Hebrew  prophet,  "  because  he 
hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  unto  the 
meek  ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken-heart- 
ed ;  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the  open- 
ing of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound."  Whoever 
has  felt  this  commission  and  entered  on  this  work 
has  received  this  anointing  and  been  impelled  by  this 
Spirit.  Wherever  there  is  a  flower  there  has  been 
sunlight ;  and  the  flora  in  the  coal  beds  are  witnesses 
that  once  it  shone  in  places  from  which  it  now  is  and 
for  ages  past  has  been  excluded.  It  is  true  that  there 
are  differences  in  races,  as  in  individuals,  which  make 
the  results  of  the  divine  inspiration  different. 

All  flowers  are  not  the  same,  though  all  are  brood- 
ed by  the  same  sun.  The  flora  of  the  Alpine  valleys 
and  of  the  South  American  forests  are  children  of  the 
same  sunlight ;  one  parentage,  different  progeny. 
We  go  back  to  Greece  for  our  architecture,  to  Rome 
for  our  jurisprudence,  to  Palestine  for  our  spiritual 
literature.  The  Hebrew  nation,  with  all  its  aposta- 
sies and  all   its  sordidness,  was  the  most  spiritually 


104  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

minded  of  all  ancient  nationalities.  During  a  period 
of  nearly  sixteen  centuries,  nearly  double  that  of  our 
own  Anglo-Saxon  civilization,  the  most  spiritually 
minded  of  this  people  were  conveying  to  Israel  the  in- 
spiration which  they  had  received  from  God  in  their 
highest  and  best  spiritual  moods.  The  purest  and 
best  of  these  instructions — by  a  process  of  natural  se- 
lection or  divine  election,  whichever  the  reader  pre- 
fers, the  terms  are  synonymous — were  preserved  and 
brought  together.  This  is  our  Bible.  It  is  the  re- 
cord of  God's  dealing  in  the  spiritual  realm  with  a 
people  whose  genius  was  spiritual,  interpreted  in  the 
most  spiritual  experiences  of  their  most  spiritual 
thinkers  and  actors.  It  is  thus  the  sifted  product  of 
human  thought  under  divine  inspiration.  It  is  the 
standard  of  spiritual  truth  and  life,  because  it  is  di- 
vinely selected  from  the  world's  highest  and  best 
spiritual  thinking ;  not  because  the  world  has  never 
done  any  other,  nor  because  God  has  never  touched 
any  other  hearts,  or  spoken  through  any  other  lips. 
We  go  back  to  Plato  for  philosophy,  to  Phidias 
for  art,  to  Justinian  for  law,  and  to  Shakespeare 
for  interpretation  of  human  emotion ;  and  I  see  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  God  gave  us  these  as  well  as 
Moses  and  Paul. 

If  any  one  asks  whether  I  suppose  the  inspiration 
of  Paul  and  Plato  were  the  same  in  kind,  and  differ- 
ent only  in  degree,  I  answer  that  I  cannot  tell.  As 
I  do  not  know  how  God  operated  on  either  the  mind  of 


"YE  KNOW   HIM."  I05 

Paul  or  the  mind  of  Plato,  as  I  do  not  know  how  he 
operates  on  the  minds  of  his  children  to-day,  as  I  do 
not  even  understand  how  one  mind  operates  upon 
another,  I  cannot  tell  how  operation  differs  from  ope- 
ration. I  cannot  see  the  fingers  that  play  upon  the 
instrument ;  I  only  hear  the  music — and  that  is  differ- 
ent. That  the  Bible,  in  its  nature  and  its  effects,  dif- 
fers radically  from  all  other  books  and  all  other  litera- 
ture, I  shall  hope  to  show  in  a  future  chapter,  and  how 
it  differs.  What  I  am  now  anxious  to  make  clear  is 
that  God's  touch  of  human  souls  was  not  an  extraordi- 
nary phenomenon,  confined  to  fifty  Hebrew  authors, 
and  coming  to  an  abrupt  end  eighteen  centuries  ago ; 
but  is  the  natural  law  of  human  life,  having  its  high- 
est but  by  no  means  its  only,  illustration  in  the  sa- 
cred writings  of  the  Jewish  people.  God  as  truly  in- 
spires every  mother  who  invokes  his  aid  in  guiding 
her  child  as  he  did  Moses,  but  not  to  the  same  end ; 
every  devout  preacher  as  truly  as  he  did  Paul  on 
Mars  Hill,  but  not  for  the  purpose  of  producing  a 
sermon  on  natural  religion  for  all  ages. 

The  influence  of  spirit  on  spirit  is  the  commonest 
experience  of  our  daily  life.  It  is  wrought  through 
the  intermediary  of  words,  of  signs,  of  books,  and  of 
the  more  subtle  influence  of  presence,  defying  all 
analysis.  It  is  more  potent  than  law,  truth,  or  ex- 
ample. It  seems  sometimes  to  pass  from  soul  to 
soul,  overleaping  space  and  disdaining  all  instru- 
ments.    Why  should   I   think   it   incredible  that  the 


106  IN    AID    OF   FAITH. 

Great,  the  Master  Spirit,  should  work  in  like  manner 
on  the  spirits  of  his  children  ?  Why  should  I  shrug 
my  shoulders  at  the  testimony  of  credible  witnesses 
who  attest  it,  not  only  by  their  words,  but  by  the 
power  of  their  lives  ?  Why  should  I  doubt  the  testi- 
mony of  my  own  heart  in  its  highest  and  best  hours  ? 
For  there  are  times  when  He  comes  so  near  to  me, 
and  is  so  close  to  me,  and  his  counsel  is  so  clear,  and 
his  strong  uplifting  so  full  of  inspiration,  that  no 
presence  of  father  or  mother  or  wife  or  child  can 
compare  for  nearness.  They  sit  by  my  side  ;  but  He 
is  with  me  and  dwells  in  me. 

In  such  hours  I  do  not  look  out  on  nature  to  see 
the  evidence  of  a  Workman  in  his  works  ;  nor  into 
my  New  Testament  to  see  the  image  of  God  in  a 
human  life  and  character :  I  look  within,  and  see 
God  himself,  for  his  Spirit  bears  witness  with  my 
spirit  that  I  am  a  son  of  God ;  I  see  him  no  longer 
through  a  glass,  darkly,  but  already  face  to  face. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    FORGIVENESS    OF    SINS. 

LADY  MACBETH  instigates  her  weaker  husband 
to  the  murder  of  his  sleeping  guest ;  then,  when 
the  crime  is  perpetrated,  comes  upon  the  scene  walk- 
ing in  her  sleep,  and  endeavoring  in  vain  to  cleanse 
away  the  imaginary  spot  of  blood  from  hands  which 
all  the  perfumes  of  Arabia  can  never  sweeten.  Bill 
Sykes  beats  with  brutal  fist  a  blow  upon  the  up- 
turned face  of  Nancy,  leaves  her  dead  body  in  a  pool 
of  blood,  and  flees.  But  wherever  he  goes  the  haunt- 
ing phantom  of  the  murdered  girl  follows  him.  He 
traces  its  shadow  in  the  gloom  ;  he  hears  its  garments 
rustling  in  the  leaves  ;  if  he  stops,  it  stops  ;  if  he  runs, 
it  keeps  pace  with  him ;  he  leans  his  back  against  a 
bank,  and  feels  it  standing  visibly  above  him  against 
the  cold  night  sky ;  he  flings  himself  upon  the 
ground,  upon  his  back — it  stands  at  his  head,  silent, 
erect,  a  living  gravestone,  the  widely  staring  eyes, 
lustreless  and  glassy,  appearing  in  the  midst  of  dark- 
ness, light  in  themselves,  but  giving  light  to  nothing. 
Is  there  any  power  that  can  cleanse  Lady  Macbeth's 
blood-stained  hand  ?  any  power  that  can  lay  the  haunt- 

107 


108  IN    AID    OF   FAITH. 

ing  figure  which  pursues  Bill  Sykes  to  his  death? 
Modern  skepticism  says,  distinctly,  No  !  "  Can  the 
favor  of  the  Tsar  make  guiltless  the  murder  of  old 
men  and  women  and  children  in  Circassian  valleys  ? 
Can  the  pardon  of  the  Sultan  clean  the  bloody  hand 
of  a  Pasha  ?  As  little  can  any  God  forgive  sins  com- 
mitted against  men :  "  so  says  Professor  Clifford. 
Christianity  says,  Yes  !  "  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his 
way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts;  and  let 
him  return  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  will  have  mercy 
upon  him,  and  to  our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly 
pardon:  "  so  says  the  prophet  Isaiah.  The  issue  is 
fairly  joined.     Which  shall  we  believe  ? 

But  the  issue  is  more,  deeper.  Sin  is  worse  than 
any  punishment,  worse  even  than  remorse.  Is  there 
any  cure  for  it  ?  Conduct  often  repeated  becomes  a 
habit ;  habit  long  continued  becomes  a  second  nature. 
Thus  we  are  building  ourselves  for  good  or  for  evil, 
generally  for  both.  We  are  what  we  have  done.  It 
is  physiologically  true  that  the  tissues  of  muscle, 
nerve,  brain,  are  made  by  our  physical  activities.  It 
is  morally  and  spiritually  true  that  our  mental  and 
moral  nature  is  made  by  our  mental  and  moral  activ- 
ities. If  we  have  built  awry — and  who  has  not  ? — 
daubed  with  untempered  mortar,  put  unseasoned 
timber  in,  is  there  any  power  that  can  rebuild  ?  that 
can  undo  our  own  undoing?  No  question  for  any 
one  of  us  more  important  than  this ;  for  there  is  not 
one  of  us  in  whom  there  is  not  some  poor  material,  ot 


THE   FORGIVENESS   OF   SINS.  IO9 

material  poorly  used.  Not  one  of  us  who  does  not 
need  rebuilding  in  whole  or  in  part.  Again  the  same 
clear,  distinct  issue.  Modern  skepticism  says,  em- 
phatically, No  !  "  Take  what  figure  you  will,"  says 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  "its  exact  value,  nor  more 
nor  less,  still  returns  to  you.  Every  secret  is  told, 
every  crime  is  punished,  every  virtue  rewarded,  every 
wrong  redressed,  in  silence  and  certainty."  "She" 
(George  Eliot),  says  Lord  Acton,  "  thought  that  the 
world  would  be  indefinitely  better  and  happier  if 
men  could  be  made  to  feel  that  there  is  no  escape 
from  the  inexorable  law  that  we  reap  what  we  have 
sown."  So  modern  unbelief;  not  so  the  ancient 
Christian  faith  :  "  He  will  subdue  our  iniquities,"  says 
the  prophet  Micah ;  "  and  thou  wilt  cast  all  our  sins 
into  the  depths  of  the  sea."  "In  whom,"  says  the 
Apostle  Paul,  "  we  have  redemption  through  His 
blood,  even  the  remission  of  sins."  Here  again  is 
the  issue  clearly  made.  Which  shall  we  believe : 
Emerson  or  Micah,  George  Eliot  or  Paul  ? 

What  the  New  Testament  offers  to  do  for  men  is 
not  to  rid  them  of  punishment,  but  to  rid  them  of 
sin.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  is,  in  Biblical  phraseolo- 
gy, the  sending  away  of  sin.  The  sin  is  a  record,  and 
it  is  blotted  out ;  a  stain,  and  it  is  washed  away  ;  a 
cloud,  and  the  sun  drinks  it  up  ;  a  corpse,  and  it  is 
buried  in  the  depths  of  the  sea.  The  punishment 
may  also  disappear,  or  it  may  not.  The  Bible  treats 
death  as  the  penalty  of  sin,  but  men  still  die  in  spite 


110  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

of  forgiveness.  David  rejoiced  in  forgiveness: 
"  Thou  forgavest,"  he  said,  "  the  iniquity  of  my  sin." 
But  the  child  of  his  illicit  love  died,  and  all  the  pen- 
alty of  rebellion  and  open  shame,  which  the  prophet 
foretold,  came  upon  him  in  his  later  years.  The  sin 
was  forgiven,  but  the  penalty  remained.  The  prom- 
ise of  forgiveness  is  not  a  promise  of  deliverance  from 
penalty  ;  it  is  the  promise  of  peace,  and  the  promise 
of  virtue.  The  stain  can  be  washed  from  Lady  Mac- 
beth's  hand,  and  raveled  sleep  reknitted,  and  the 
murderess  can  become  a  saint.  The  phantom  that 
haunts  Bill  Sykes  can  be  buried  in  the  depths  of  the 
sea,  and  the  brute  can  become  a  son  of  God.  If  the 
Gospel  is  not  curative,  it  is  nothing.  This  is  its  func- 
tion. It  claims  to  undo  our  undoing,  to  repair  the 
irreparable  past ;  by  this  test  it  must  be  tried.  Chris- 
tian faith  believes  it :  modern  skeoticism  doubts  or 
denies. 

There  is  a  dumb  prophet  of  redemption  in  nature, 
whose  voice  might  well  prepare  us  to  listen  for  a  voice 
of  pardon  in  the  spiritual  realm.  The  effects  of  physi- 
cal sin  are  not  irreparable.  On  the  contrary,  the  mo- 
ment the  sin  ceases,  the  work  of  reparation  begins. 
The  broken  bone,  reset,  begins  to  knit  together;  the 
cut  flesh  begins  to  close  up  ;  and  where  the  tissue  has 
been  burned  away,  nature  mercifully  produces  new 
tissue  to  take  its  place.  The  dyspeptic  ceases  to  vio- 
late the  laws  of  health,  and  the  stomach  begins  to  re- 
pair the  ravages  which  he  has  made  in  it  *  the  drunk- 


THE   FORGIVENESS   OF   SINS.  Ill 

ard  abandons  his  cups,  and  the  body  begins  to  cast 
out  the  alcoholized  tissues  and  bring  new  and  healthy 
ones  to  take  their  place.  If  nature  is  unable  unaided 
to  repair  the  wrong,  there  are  reparative  agencies  in 
the  world  outside  ready  to  give  their  aid  in  such  force 
and  number  that  it  is  beginning  to  be  believed  that 
there  is  no  disease  which  humanity  has  brought  upon 
itself  by  its  violation  of  natural  law,  for  which  there  is 
not  somewhere,  stored  up  in  God's  pharmacopoeia,  an 
instrument  of  repair.  It  is  not  true  that  there  is  no 
escape  from  the  inexorable  law  that  we  reap  what  we 
have  sown.  On  the  contrary,  the  moment  we  stop 
our  sowing,  a  door  of  escape  from  the  dreadful  harvest 
is  opened  to  us,  in  our  misery,  by  Mercy. 

In  the  Elmira  Reformatory , in  the  State  of  New  York, 
there  are  gathered  600  convicts,  of  every  grade  of 
crime,  from  petty  larceny  to  arson  and  manslaughter. 
They  are  sent  here  not  to  be  punished,  but  to  be 
cured.  When  a  prisoner  is  delivered  at  the  Reforma- 
tory, the  Superintendent  commences  at  once  an  in- 
vestigation of  his  case,  examines  him  personally,  es- 
timates the  possibility  of  his  character  both  for  good 
and  for  evil,  and  inquires  into  his  heredity,  his  early 
education,  his  associates  ;  forms  a  plan  for  his  recovery 
to  honesty  and  virtue,  and  sets  himself  to  accomplish 
it.  And  in  spite  of  a  community  only  half-Christian- 
ized, in  spite  of  a  church  which  only  half  believes  in  re- 
demption, in  spite  of  sectarian  differences  that  prohibit 
the  full  and  free  use  of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  work 


112  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

of  reformation,  eighty- one  per  cent,  of  the  inmates  of 
the  Reformatory,  when  they  graduate,  go  back  to  the 
community  to  prove  the  genuineness  of  their  reform  by 
lives  of  honest  industry.  Nature  forgives  sins  against 
the  laws  of  nature,  and  society  is  beginning  to  forgive, 
though  in  a  grumbling  and  half-hearted  way,  sins 
against  the  laws  of  society.  Is  it  God  only  who  does 
not  forgive  sins  ? 

Still  seeking  to  know  whether  George  Eliot  or 
Paul  reads  aright  the  book  of  life,  I  look  out  upon  it, 
and,  looking,  I  see  such  lives  as  those  of  Augustine, 
Bunyan,  and  John  B.  Gough.  I  see  the  pagan  rout 
transformed  into  the  father  of  modern  theology,  the 
drunken  tinker  transformed  into  a  prophet,  whose  vis- 
ion of  the  Pilgrim's  Progress  will  outlive  all  mere  theo- 
logical systems ;  the  inebriate  citizen  transformed  into 
a  preacher  of  temperance  to  two  continents,  the  fruits 
of  whose  redeeming  work  will  outlive  all  philosophies 
and  all  literatures.  These  are  but  extraordinary  illus- 
trations of  a  transformation  of  character  which  is  an 
ordinary  though  wholly  inexplicable  phenomenon  of 
human  life.  No  outward  cause  exists  which  suffices 
to  account  for  it. 

To  the  rationalist  the  explanation  is  indeed  ready 
and  simple;  but  it  is  too  ready  and  too  simple.  "  It 
needs  only  will  power,  and  all  things  are  possible." 
But  this  power  that  transforms,  rescues  alike  the  wil- 
ful and  the  weak  of  will.  It  seizes  on  the  inebriate 
bookbinder  just  when  all  hope  is  gone  and  all  pur- 


THE    FORGIVENESS    OF    SINS.  113 

pose  lies  limp  and  helpless.  If  any  credit  is  to  be 
given  to  human  testimony,  this  is  a  "  power  not  our- 
selves that  makes  for  righteousness."  If  any  credit 
is  to  be  given  to  the  deductions  of  philosophy,  it 
must  be  a  power  not  ourselves,  and  always  a  power  not 
ourselves.  For  a  soul  can  no  more  create  its  own 
moral  force  than  a  machine  can  create  its  own  phys- 
ical force.  All  education  and  elevation  is  by  the 
play  of  a  higher  nature  on  the  lower,  the  parent  on 
the  child,  the  teacher  on  the  pupil,  the  orator  on  the 
audience,  the  leader  on  the  nation.  Romulus,  left  to 
be  suckled  by  a  she- wolf,  the  world  counts  as  a  le- 
gend ;  it  is  not  thus  that  babes  are  trained  to  manhood. 
A  schoolmate  of  mine  undertook  to  lift  himself  by  his 
own  boot  straps,  and  was  quite  sanguine  that  after  a 
while  he  would  succeed ;  but  he  never  did.  The 
power  to  lift  is  always  outside  the  lifted.  This  is  as 
true  of  the  race  as  of  the  individual.  What  one 
has  absolutely  no  power  to  do,  two,  twenty,  two 
hundred  million  have  no  more  power  to  do.  For 
twice  nothing  is  nothing,  and  twenty  times  nothing  is 
still  nothing. 

Nor  is  this  forgiveness  of  sins  a  mere  individual  phe- 
nomenon. The  history  of  the  race  is  the  history  of 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  of  the  transformation  of  charac- 
ter, of  the  development  of  a  higher,  purer,  better  man- 
hood. "  Huge  bodies,  cold-blooded,  with  fierce  reddish 
flaxen  hair ;  ravenous  stomachs,  filled  with  meat  and 
cheese,  heated  by  strong  drinks  ;  of  a  cold  tempera- 
8 


114  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

ment,  slow  to  love,  home- slayers,  prone  to  drunken- 
ness  Of  all  barbarians  these  are  the  strongest  of 

body  and  heart,  the  most  formidable,  we  may  add  the 

most  cruelly  ferocious Settling  in  England,  they 

become  more  gluttonous,  carving  their  hogs,  filling 
themselves  with  flesh,  swallowing  down  deep  draughts 
of  mead,  ale,  spiced  wines,  all  the  strong,  coarse  wines 
they  can  procure,  and  so  they  are  cheered  and  stimu- 
lated." These  are  the  features  of  our  ancestors,  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  in  early  England.  It  does  not  lie 
in  us  to  deny  that  transformation  of  character  is  racial 
as  well  as  personal,  that  for  nations,  as  well  as  for  indivi- 
duals, sins  are  buried  in  the  depths  of  the  sea:  nay,  that 
the  very  elements  of  character  which  once  made  red- 
handed  crime,  transformed,  make  stalwart-handed  in- 
dustry, so  that  the  sins  that  were  scarlet  become  white 
as  snow,  and  those  that  were  crimson  become  like  wool. 
Whether  Christianity  has  had  anything  to  do  with 
this  transformation  is  another  question,  to  be  consider- 
ed in  another  chapter  ;  that  there  is  a  transformation 
is  what  I  seek  to  make  clear  here  and  now :  that  we 
have,  whether  in  Christ  or  out  of  him,  a  remission — 
i.  e.y  a  dismissal — of  sins ;  that  neither  in  individual  nor 
in  race  life  do  we  reap  what  we  have  sown  ;  that  nei- 
ther in  individual  nor  in  race  life  do  we  receive  the 
exact  value  for  the  figure  we  have  set  down;  that  on 
the  contrary,  we  sow  the  pagan  roue  and  reap  the 
Christian  theologian,  sow  the  drunken  tinker,  and 
reap  the  Christian  poet,  sow  the  inebriate  citizen  and 


THE   FORGIVENESS   OF   SINS.  115 

reap  the  temperance  Chrysostom,  sow  a  race  of  glut- 
tonous barbarians  and  reap  English  and  American 
civilization. 

There  are  great  divine  laws  of  punishment ;  he  is 
blind  who  does  not  see  them.  But  retribution  is  not 
the  only  fact.  There  are  also  great  laws  of  healing. 
Therapeutics  is  also  a  science — therapeutics  moral  as 
well  as  physical,  for  the  spirit  as  well  as  for  the  body. 
There  is  a  law  of  sin  and  death  ;  but  there  is  a  higher 
law  of  the  spirit  of  life,  which  makes  humanity  free 
from  the  law  of  sin  and  death,  plucks  us  out  of  it,  re- 
deems us  from  it.  There  are  forces  to  punish  and 
forces  to  save.  And  he  who  ceases  to  do  evil  and 
will  learn  to  do  well,  finds  himself  in  that  instant  tak- 
en out  of  the  lower  law  and  brought  under  the  pow- 
er of  the  higher  law;  under  forces  which  work,  in 
body  and  in  spirit,  in  individual  and  in  race,  for  help 
and  for  healing. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE    LAW    OF    SACRIFICE. 

WHAT,"  asked  a  friend  once  of  Mr.  William 
M.  Evarts,  "is  the  secret  of  Dr.  John  Hall's 
pulpit  power?"  "His  personality,"  was  the  prompt 
response.  This  is  the  secret  of  all  moral  power. 
Personality  is  communicable ;  and  we  are  all  of  us 
continually  communicating  it  to  each  other.  The 
greatest  and  best  of  all  gifts  is  that  which  we  uncon- 
sciously bestow ;  the  most  terrible  of  all  burdens  is 
that  which  we  unconsciously  impose.  We  barter 
qualities  with  one  another.  The  commerce  in  char- 
acter transcends  all  other  commerce.  It  is  contin- 
uous and  ceaseless,  broken  in  upon  only  by  sleep. 
All  methods  of  expression  are  only  the  instruments 
of  exchange,  the  coin  in  the  spiritual  realm,  by 
which  we  carry  this  commerce  on. 

Personality  is  the  battery  ;  speech,  literature,  music, 
art,  are  only  the  wires  that  carry  the  current ;  of  no 
use  unless  there  is  a  current  to  be  carried.  The  lack 
of  this  personality  in  music  is  expressed  in  the  familiar 
phrase,  "  there  is  no  soul  in  his  playing."  The  true 
musician,  whether  his  instrument  is  a  single  violin  or 
116 


THE   LAW    OF   SACRIFICE.  117 

a  great  orchestra,  is  one  whose  soul  is  surcharged 
with  a  life  which  words  cannot  utter  ;  and  his  bow  or 
his  baton  becomes  utterer  for  him.  No  skillful  tech- 
nique can  take  the  place  of  soul ;  and  no  lack  of  it 
can  quite  destroy  the  power  of  soul.  A  hearer  once 
complimented  Ole  Bull  on  the  wonderful  effects 
which  he  had  produced  on  his  audience  by  his  violin. 
The  indignant  musician  rejected  the  blundering  com- 
pliment. "  It  was  not  my  violin,"  said  he,  "  it  was  I, 
myself,  that  did  it."  If  a  great  soul  be  present  in 
the  orator,  gesticulation  may  be  awkward,  presence 
insignificant,  rhetoric  uncultured,  even  grammar 
neglected,  and  yet  the  audience  will  be  thrilled.  As 
a  boy  I  once  listened  for  an  hour  to  Gavazzi  in  the 
Italian  tongue,  fascinated,  though  I  could  only  pick 
out  here  and  there  single  sentences  and  isolated 
words.  If  the  great  soul  be  absent  we  have,  not  an 
orator,  but  a  rhetorician  and  a  declaimer.  England 
has  produced  many  a  greater  scholar  than  Arnold  of 
Rugby,  but  no  such  teacher,  for  never  a  soul  with 
such  power  to  reproduce  his  own  image  on  the  sen- 
sitized plate  of  a  human  soul.  Great  leaders  make 
little  men  great  by  their  own  distributed  greatness. 
Sheridan  hears  the  sound  of  the  cannon  far  down  the 
Shenandoah  Valley,  rides  in  hot  haste  toward  the 
battle  echoes,  meets  his  soldiers  fleeing  in  panic  from 
the  field,  rises  in  his  stirrups,  waves  his  sword  in  air, 
and  cries,  "  We're  going  the  other  way,  boys  !  we're 
going  the  other  way  ! "  and  they  turn  and  do  go  the 


Il8  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

other  way,  and  convert  rout  into  victory,  reinforced 
only  by  the  presence  of  a  single  hero,  whose  person- 
ality transforms  a  panic  stricken  mob  into  heroes  like 
himself.  Personality,  and  the  power  to  impart  it, 
makes  mother  more  potent  than  king  or  queen,  and 
her  kingdom  one  that  ruleth  over  all.  She  goes 
down  to  that  door  that  swings  both  ways  on  its 
hinges ;  knows  not  whether  through  it  she  shall  go 
out  into  the  unknown,  or  through  it  out  of  the  un- 
known a  new  life  shall  come  to  her ;  receives  it  and 
straightway  begins  to  pour  her  own  life  into  the 
receptive  life  laid  upon  her  bosom.  She  did  enjoy 
society,  but  now  the  only  society  she  cares  for  is 
that  of  the  eyes  which  look  trustingly  up  into  hers. 
She  was  fond  of  music ;  the  only  songs  she  now 
cares  for  are  the  lullabys  she  croons  to  her  baby 
She  rejoiced  in  literature ;  now  "  Mother  Goose  "  is 
her  library.  In  sickness  and  health,  in  toil  and  rest, 
at  home  and  abroad,  she  lives  for  the  life  that  is 
grafted  upon  her  own,  scornful  of  pity,  and  conceiv- 
ing no  higher  happiness  than  by  and  by  to  lean  on  the 
arm,  which  she  has  made  strong  in  her  strength,  and 
trust  in  the  heart  which  has  been  made  pure  and  true 
and  faithful  by  her  own  purity  and  truth  and  faithful- 
ness. Soul  teaches  soul,  character  influences  character, 
by  direct  radiation.  Personality  is  more  than  either 
authority  or  wisdom.  We  are  transformed,  not  by 
laws  enforced  by  penalty,  nor  by  philosophy  ex- 
pounded by  eloquence,  but  by  the  power  of  a  more 


THE    LAW   OF    SACRIFICE.  II 9 

potent  personality  molding  us  to  its  own  pattern. 
We  give  and  receive  direct  soul-impressions.  Every 
one  of  us  leaves  an  impress  on  every  one  he 
touches ;  every  one  of  us  receives  an  impress  from 
every  one  who  touches  him. 

Why  should  it  be  deemed  a  strange  or  incredible 
belief  that  this  power  of  humanity  should  also  be  the 
power  of  God  ?  that  this  transforming  energy  which 
proceeds  from  all  great  souls  should  proceed  most  of 
all  from  the  greatest  Soul  of  all  ?  This  is  the  power 
of  the  Gospel — the  transforming  power  of  a  Divine 
Personality  ;  of  a  Teacher  who  impresses  his  own 
character  on  his  pupils;  of  a  Musician  who  beats 
time  for  the  universe,  and  evokes  his  own  symphony 
of  life  out  of  universal  humanity ;  of  a  Mother  who 
imparts  life  to  the  helpless  babe  and  builds  it  up  into 
a  child  of  God,  wrought  into  the  divine  image.  To 
this  the  two  great  leaders  of  skeptic  thought  in  our 
age  bear  testimony.  The  Infinite  and  Eternal  Ener- 
gy in  whose  presence  we  ever  stand,  according 
to  Herbert  Spencer,  is  according  to  Matthew  Arnold, 
a  Power  not  ourselves  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness. God  is  forever  giving  himself  to  his  children, 
as  the  orator  gives  himself  to  his  audience,  and 
the  mother  herself  to  her  children.  This  is  "  jus- 
tification by  faith  ;"  not  a  promised  deliverance  from 
some  unknown  future  punishment,  if  we  will  believe 
something  in  the  creed  or  catechism,  a  bribe  to  the 
intellect  to  make  believe  that  it  believes  what  it  reallv 


120  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

does  not  believe,  but  a  present  transformation  of  char- 
acter, when  we  open  our  souls  to  the  influence  of 
the  Eternal  and  Infinite  Personality  from  whom  all 
things  proceed,  all  things  spiritual  as  well  as  all  things 
material.  When  we  with  unveiled  face  behold  the 
image  of  this  Lord  of  glory,  and  then  reflect  it  in  our 
lives,  so  reproducing  in  others  what  he  has  first  pro- 
duced in  us,  we  are  transformed  into  the  same  image, 
from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  from  the  Lord,  the  Spir- 
it. We  become  heirs  of  God  ;  not  inheriting  some- 
thing from  him,  as  bonds  or  stocks  or  lands,  but 
inheriting  himself,  as  a  child  inherits  the  qualities  of 
his  father.  We  become  a  "  chip  of  the  old  block," 
partakers  of  the  divine  nature,  filled  with  all  the  full- 
ness of  God. 

Now,  this  work  of  character-building  cannot  be 
carried  on  without  suffering.  Pain  is  the  great 
peacemaker,  and  pain  is  the  great  purifier.  One 
soul  cannot  purify  another  until  it  knows  that  other's 
sin,  and  it  cannot  know  that  other's  sin  without  feel- 
ing the  full  burden  of  it.  An  unsuffering  hero  can- 
not save  a  sinful  nation,  nor  an  unsuffering  pastor  a 
sinful  congregation,  nor  an  unsuffering  teacher  a  sin- 
ful pupil,  nor  an  unsuffering  mother  a  sinful  child, 
nor  an  unsuffering  God  a  sinful  race.  This  is  the 
climax  of  the  Gospel.  Christian  theism  has  three 
articles :  first,  Herbert  Spencer's  "  We  are  in  the 
presence  of  an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy,  from 
which  all  things   proceed ;  "    second,  Matthew   Ar- 


THE   LAW   OF   SACRIFICE.  121 

nold's,  This  Energy  is  a  "  Power  not  ourselves,  that 
makes  for  righteousness  ;  "  third,  Paul's,  This  Power 
makes  for  righteousness  by  entering  into  and  bearing 
the  burden  of  all  unrighteousness — "  In  whom  we 
have  redemption  through  his  blood,  even  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins."  There  is  no  other  way.  The  law  of 
sacrifice  is  the  eternal  law  of  life. 

A  boy  wanders  off  into  dissipation,  becomes  gay, 
fast,  dissolute.  His  mother,  a  woman  of  the  world, 
cares  not,  so  long  as  dissipation  does  not  bring  social 
disgrace.  But  in  the  selfishness  of  the  two,  animal 
selfishness  in  the  son,  social  selfishness  in  the  mother, 
they  drift  further  and  further  apart.  What  is 
necessary  to  bring  them  at  one  again  ?  and,  bringing 
them  at  one,  to  begin  in  him  the  work  of  reforma- 
tion ?  Clearly  the  mother  must  feel  the  disgrace  of 
her  son's  sin.  Clearly  he  must  feel  it  too.  When  to 
both  the  sin  appears  as  sin,  when  both  feel  a  shame 
and  horror  in  it,  they  are  at  one ;  and  he  can  begin 
to  mend,  and  she  to  help  him.  If  he  cares  not,  all 
her  tears  and  prayers  can  never  put  them  upon  the 
same  plane,  and  bring  their  lives  into  a  community 
of  life.  If  she  cares  not,  all  his  repentance  will  bring 
him  no  nearer  her,  nor  obtain  from  her  one  inspira- 
tion to  a  better  life.  Not  till  she  feels  the  shame  of 
his  sin  as  though  it  were  her  own,  and  he  feels  it  as 
his  own,  are  mother  and  son  at  one  ;  not  till  then  is 
at-one-ment  made  between  them ;  not  till  then  can 
these   two    walk  and  work  together  for  his  reform. 


122  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

If  the  father  of  the  prodigal  had  not  felt  the  burden 
of  his  son's  criminal  career,  no  going  home  by  the 
son,  with  penitence  in  his  heart  and  confession  in  his 
life,  could  have  brought  father  and  son  together. 
"  The  father  was  moved  with  compassion  :  "  think 
for  one  moment  the  depth  of  meaning  contained  in 
that  one  sentence.  To  feel  compassion  {can  and 
patior}  is  to  suffer  with.  The  father  suffered  in  his 
son,  with  his  son,  for  his  son  ;  and  by  and  in  that 
suffering  made  that  sacrifice  for  sin  without  which 
love  can  never  help  those  who  most  need  love's  help. 
Imagine  for  a  moment  a  group  of  Jewish  rabbis 
looking  on  that  moment  of  reconciliation  between 
father  and  son,  and  discussing  the  meaning  of  the 
father's  tears.  "  I  think,"  says  one,  "  that  he  weeps 
that  he  may  induce  his  reluctant  heart  to  forgive  and 
to  forget."  "That  cannot  be,"  says  a  second  ;  "  but 
he  remembers  the  eldest  son,  and  the  neighbors,  and 
weeps  that  he  may  show  them  how  terrible  a  thing 
is  sin,  and  make  it  safe  for  him  to  forgive."  "You 
are  both  wrong,' '  exclaims  a  third  ;  "  he  weeps,  and 
watches  with  anxious  eyes  the  effect  of  his  tears  upon 
his  recreant  son,  hoping  that  it  will  produce  so  pro- 
found a  moral  influence  upon  him  that  his  repentance 
will  be  deep,  genuine,  and  abiding."  And  I  see  the 
father  looking  up  with  wonder  in  his  eyes  and  sup- 
pressed indignation  in  his  voice,  as  he  says:  "  You  are 
doubtless  learned  men ;  but  you  do  not  know  a 
father's  heart.     If  you  did,  you  would  not  ask  why  a 


THE    LAW    OF    SACRIFICE.  1 2$ 

father  should  weep  over  his  sinful  boy.  I  weep 
neither  to  satisfy  my  own  sense  of  justice,  nor  to 
justify  my  forgiving  kindness  to  my  elder  son,  nor  to 
play  upon  the  sympathies  of  my  returning  prodigal. 
I  weep  because  I  am  a  father  and  he  is  my  son,  and 
the  father  must  ever  sorrow  in  the  sins  and  sorrows 
of  the  child  of  his  love." 

A  friend  of  mine  not  long  since  attended  an  ortho- 
dox church  where  an  evangelist  was  preaching  a  re- 
vival sermon.  He  told  the  following  story  to  illus- 
trate the  atonement:  A  father  and  son  quarrelled. 
The  father  banished  the  son  from  the  house.  The 
son  departed,  vowing  that  he  would  never  return  till 
his  father  recalled  him.  The  mother,  heart-broken  at 
such  a  quarrel,  sought  in  vain  to  pacify  the  angered 
pride  and  break  the  stern  resolution  of  her  husband. 
She  grieved,  grew  pale  and  wan,  fell  into  decline,  took 
to  her  bed,  and  drew  near  to  inevitable  death.  The 
father  at  last  so  far  yielded  to  her  interceding  as  to 
send  a  message  in  her  name  to  the  exiled  boy  to  re- 
turn ;  but  he  would  not  come.  Her  thin  face  grew 
so  eloquent  that  even  his  strong  nature  could  not  re- 
sist it,  and  at  last  he  sent  a  message  in  his  own  name. 
The  boy  came,  but  as  unreconciled  as  when  he  went 
out  from  the  roof-tree,  and  father  and  son  would  not 
speak  to  each  other.  The  mother's  pleading  voice 
lost  its  power  of  pleading,  and  still  her  eyes  plead  for 
her.  Father  and  son  stood  on  either  side  her  bed  to 
bid  her  a  last  good-by.      She  reached  her  feeble  hand 


124  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

out,  took  their  hand  in  hers,  clasped  them,  held  them 
together  in  her  own,  and  so  died.  The  hands  which 
she  had  clasped  in  dying  love  they  could  not  unclasp 
in  living  enmity,  and,  kneeling  by  her  death-bed,  min- 
gled their  prayers  and  tears  together.  She  who  had 
sought  in  vain  to  reconcile  them  by  her  life  made  re- 
conciliation between  them  by  her  death.  And  this 
story  of  a  father's  cruel  pride  was  told  to  illustrate  the 
love  of  Him  who  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his 
only  begotten  son  for  its  redemption. 

I  repeat  it  here  to  put  in  clear,  strong,  emphatic 
terms  my  abhorrent  disbelief  of  any  and  every  doc- 
trine of  atonement  which  underlies  such  horrible  tra- 
vesties of  God's  nature  as  this.  The  cross  of  Christ 
was  a  mystery  to  Paul.  I  am  not  loath  to  acknowledge 
that  it  is  a  mystery  to  me.  But  some  things  are  clear 
about  it.  It  cannot  be  true  that  Christ  died  to  induce 
a  reluctant  God  to  forgive ;  nor  to  enable  a  God 
bound  hand  and  foot  by  his  own  laws  to  forgive ; 
nor  as  a  dramatic  spectacle  to  exert  a  moral  influence 
upon  mankind,  that  they  might  be  induced  to  accept 
his  forgiveness.  The  passion  of  the  Son  of  God  is  a 
revelation  in  time  of  an  eternal  fact.  The  Lamb  of 
God  is  a  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world;  the  Sinbearer  is  an  eternal  Sinbearer;  the 
heart  of  Christ  is  a  revelation  of  the  heart  of  God,  and 
he  who  bore  the  sins  of  the  world  upon  his  heart  un- 
til it  broke  and  gave  him  release  from  the  slow  agony 
of  the  cross  bears  them  still,  and  will  bear  them  until 


THE   LAW   OF   SACRIFICE.  1 25 

sin  shall  be  no  more.  God  is  a  suffering  God.  Love 
is  a  suffering  love  ;  for  there  is  and  can  be  no  true 
love  that  does  not  suffer  so  long  as  loved  ones  sin. 
The  Eternal  and  Infinite  Energy  from  which  all  things 
proceed,  the  Power  not  ourselves  that  makes  for  right- 
eousness, is  an  Energy  and  a  Power  that  enter  into 
the  suffering  of  sinful  humanity,  and  bear  it  until  that 
sin  is  by  his  suffering  borne  away  to  be  buried  in  the 
depths  of  the  sea  forever. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   BOOK   OF    PROMISE. 

What  is  the  orthodox  theory,  and  what  is  vour  theory  (if  the  twa 
are  not  the  same),  of  divine  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  ? 

If  we  are  to  believe  that  God  inspired  the  writers  of  the  different 
books,  we  must  also  believe  that  he  inspired  likewise  those  who  de- 
cided the  canonicity  of  the  sacred  writings.  And  if  our  English  Bible 
is  to  be  accepted  as  inspired,  the  translators  must  have  been  inspired 
also.  This,  however,  cannot  be,  else  there  would  be  no  necessity  for 
repeated  translations.  How  are  we  to  know  that  the  sixty-six  books 
of  the  Bible  contain  nothing  but  divine  truth,  and  that  no  divinely  in- 
spired revelation  is  to  be  found  outside  of  the  Bible?  An  ordinary 
layman  is  compelled  to  look  to  Biblical  scholars  for  help  in  determin- 
ing such  questions  as  these,  and  he  is  often  perplexed,  as  from  time  to 
time  he  finds  sentences,  verses,  parts,  indeed  of  chapters,  rejected  as 
interpolations  and  spurious.  For  example,  the  Second  Epistle  of  St. 
Peter  is  (so  we  are  told)  probably  not  from  St.  Peter's  pen  at  all.  Yet 
the  salutation  in  the  first  verse  claims  to  be  from  the  Apostle.  If  the 
first  sentence  be  fraudulent,  why  accept  the  rest  of  the  Epistle  as 
from  God  ?  "  False  in  one,  false  in  all."  So  able  and  godly  a  man 
as  Dr.  Adam  Clarke  rejects  positively  the  Song  of  Solomon.  Many 
reject  the  Book  of  Esther,  and  so  on.  If  these  books  do  not  belong 
in  the  canon — in  other  words,  are  not  inspired — how  do  we  know 
that  like  mistakes  have  not  occurred  in  placing  other  books  in  the  ca- 
non ?  On  the  other  hand,  the  Romish  Church  accepts  as  God's  inspir- 
ed word  many  books  which  Protestants  reject.  How  shall  the  ordi- 
nary layman  know  that  the  Romanists  are  not  nearer  the  truth  than  the 
Protestants  ? 

THIS  letter,  which  I  not  long  since  received,  repre- 
sents undoubtedly  a  common  perplexity  respect- 
ing the  Bible  in  the  minds  of  earnest,  honest,  sincere 
126 


THE  BOOK   OF   PROMISE.  1 27 

Christians,  who  are  unwilling  to  give  up  the  Bible, 
but  who  are  absolutely  incapable  of  holding  to  an  irra- 
tional faith  merely  because  it  is  unpleasant  to  surren- 
der it.  I  print  it  here  as  the  text  for  this  and  the 
following  chapter,  not  because  it  represents  all  the 
difficulties  involved  in  the  orthodox  or  any  other 
theory  of  inspiration,  nor  because  I  propose  to  answer 
these  questions  categorically,  but  because  it  indicates 
the  character  of  the  difficulties  which  I  desire  in  some 
measure  to  meet. 

The  first  thing  to  be  noted  in  answering  these  ques- 
tions is  that  the  Bible  is  not  a  book,  but  a  library ; 
perhaps  I  should  rather  say  a  literature.  It  is  com- 
posed of  sixty-six  different  books,  written  by  between 
forty  and  fifty  different  authors ;  written  centuries 
apart,  in  different  languages,  to  different  peoples,  for 
different  purposes,  in  different  literary  forms.  It  is 
the  selected  literature  of  fifteen  centuries  ;  it  includes 
law,  history,  poetry,  fiction,  biography,  and  philoso- 
phy. It  is  to  be  read  as  a  literature,  interpreted  as  a 
literature,  judged  as  a  literature.  One  may  there- 
fore reject  a  book  from  this  collection  of  literature  and 
yet  believe  in  the  literature.  It  is  not  like  a  painting, 
which  either  is  or  is  not  the  work  of  one  master ;  it 
is  a  gallery  of  paintings,  in  which  some  works  may 
be  originals  and  others  copies.  To  believe  in  the  Bi- 
ble is  one  thing,  to  believe  in  the  canonicity  of  every 
book  in  the  Bible  is  a  very  different  thing.  Luther 
believed  in  the  Bible,  though  he  rejected  the  Epistle 


128  IN   AID   OF  FAITH. 

of  James,  and  Dr.  Adam  Clarke  believed  in  the  Bi- 
ble, though  he  rejected  Solomon's  Song. 

But  although  the  Bible  is  not  a  book,  yet  this  lite- 
rature possesses  a  unity  other  than  that  given  to  it 
by  binder's  boards.  It  is  not  a  mere  aggregation  of 
books.  A  common  spirit  animates,  a  common  char- 
acter belongs  to  it.  If  it  were  not  so,  it  would  never 
have  borne  the  semblance  of  a  book  for  so  many 
years  and  in  so  many  minds.  These  literary  remains 
of  fifteen  centuries  of  Jewish  history  were  not 
collected  together  by  an  ecclesiastical  council,  nor  by 
one  authorized  editor.  Indeed,  no  one  knows  how 
either  the  collection  of  Old  Testament  books  or 
that  of  the  New  Testament  books  was  made.  Each 
collection  may  almost  be  said  to  have  made  itself. 
The  books  came  together  by  a  process  of  natural 
affinity.  There  was,  there  is,  something  in  common 
in  the  books  of  law  and  poetry,  of  history  and  fiction, 
of  biography  and  philosophy,  which  unites  them  ; 
there  is  in  this  literature  a  principle  of  attraction,  of 
cohesion,  which  is  moral,  not  mechanical  or  ecclesias- 
tical. The  writings  of  Moses,  of  Isaiah,  of  David,  of 
Paul,  of  the  unknown  author  of  the  books  of  Kings 
and  of  the  unknown  author  of  the  book  of  Hebrews, 
have  certain  characteristics  in  common,  a  certain 
spirit  which  unifies  them  in  one  book.  I  have  said 
that  the  Bible  is  not  a  book,  but  a  literature  ;  I  will 
now  say  that  this  literature  is  a  book  :  not  merely  be- 
cause its  various  writings  are  bound  together  in  one 


THE   BOOK   OF   PROMISE.  129 

volume,  but  because  they  are  animated  with  one  and 
the  same  life.  It  is  this  life  which  makes  the  litera- 
ture sacred,  and  the  sacredness  of  the  different  parts 
of  this  literature  are  exactly  proportioned  to  the 
measure  of  this  life  which  they  respectively  contain. 
It  is  least  in  such  a  chapter  as  the  21st  chapter  of 
Joshua;  it  is  greatest  in  such  a  chapter  as  the  103d 
Psalm. 

Following  this  line  of  thought  a  little  further,  I 
think  we  can  see,  if  we  reflect  a  little,  that  the  char- 
acteristic which  unites  all  this  literature  in  one  homo- 
geneous book  is  promise.  It  is  all  a  literature  of 
promise.  Promise  is  the  golden  thread  which  binds 
all  these  books  together  in  one  common  book.  This 
is  the  natural  affinity  which  selected  and  combined  in 
one  library  these  literary  remains  of  fifteen  centuries. 
The  Bible  is,  at  least  it  claims  to  be,  the  promise  of 
God  to  his  children,  whereby  he  bestows  upon  them 
what  otherwise  they  never  could  have  possessed,  for 
want  of  knowledge  that  it  was  theirs  to  possess. 

This  claim  is  indicated  in  the  titles  Old  Testament 
and  New  Testament.  A  testament  is  a  covenant  or 
agreement.  The  Bible  is  composed  of  two  covenants 
or  agreements,  by  which  God  confers  upon  man  that 
of  which  otherwise  he  would  know  nothing.  It  is 
the  will  and  testament  by  which  a  Father  bequeaths 
an  inheritance  to  his  children.  This  claim  is  indica- 
ted by  its  structure.  Its  first  five  books  are  books  of 
law;  but  all  its  commandments  are  commandments 
9 


130  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

with  promise,  and  to  every  one  is  attached  the  condi- 
tion, Tf  ye  be  willing  and  obedient,  ye  shall  eat  the 
good  of  the  land.  This  characteristic  of  the  law  is 
emphasized  in  the  closing  chapter  of  Deuteronomy : 
"  I  have  set  before  you  life  and  death,  blessing  and 
cursing :  therefore  choose  life,  that  thou  and  thy  seed 
may  live."  Its  historical  books  are  not  the  record  of 
great  national  achievements ;  they  are  not  the  story 
of  the  building  and  the  life  of  a  nation  ;  they  are  the 
record  of  God's  fulfilment  of  his  promises  to  the  peo- 
ple of  promise  and  of  their  failure  to  fulfil  their  prom- 
ises, and  of  the  disastrous  results  in  their  national 
life.  The  poetical  books  are  also  prophetical  books, 
for  Hebrew  poetry  is  prophecy :  the  song  of  the 
prophet,  whether  he  is  an  Isaiah  mounting  like  the 
lark  above  the  storm  into  the  clear  sunlight  above,  or 
a  Jeremiah  singing  like  the  nightingale  a  song  in  the 
night,  is  always  a  song  of  promise. 

The  life  of  Christ  is  the  story  of  the  beginning  of  the 
fulfilment  of  promises  which  had  cheered  the  faithful 
in  the  darkest  hours  of  Judea's  apostasy  and  ruin  :  the 
letters  of  Paul  are  the  unfolding  of  that  fulfilment  in 
spiritual  experience,  ever  pointing  to  a  richer  and  yet 
richer  fulfilment  in  the  ever  increasing  crescendo 
movement  of  the  future;  and  the  literature  of  promise 
ends  with  an  apocalyptic  vision  of  the  perfecting  but 
never  perfected  fulfilment  in  the  latter  days.  If  we 
turn  from  the  structure  to  the  contents  of  this  litera- 
ture, this  promise  character  is  even  more  apparent 


THE   BOOK   OF   PROMISE-  131 

The  Bible  is  like  a  symphony,  weaving  endless 
variations  around  one  simple  theme,  which,  obscure  at 
first,  grows  stronger  and  clearer,  until  finally  the 
whole  orchestra  takes  it  up  in  one  magnificent  choral, 
conquering  all  obstacles  and  breaking  through  all 
hidings.  Abraham  is  beckoned  out  of  the  land  of 
idolatry  by  the  finger  of  promise ;  Joseph  is  cheered 
in  danger  and  in  prison  by  the  memory  of  a  dream  of 
promise  ;  Moses  is  called  by  promise  from  his  herding 
in  the  wilderness  to  lead  a  nation  of  promise  out  of 
bondage  into  a  promised  land  ;  Joshua  is  called  to  his 
captaincy  with  reiterated  promises  ;  Gideon  is  inspired 
for  his  campaigning  by  repeated  promises ;  David  is 
sustained  in  the  cave  of  Adullam,  and  strengthened 
in  the  palace  in  Jerusalem  by  promise;  from  Isaiah  to 
Malachi  the  note  of  promise,  before  broken  and  frag- 
mentary, sounds  without  a  pause ;  the  shepherds  are 
brought  to  the  Christ  by  an  angelic  message  of  prom- 
ise ;  he  begins  his  ministry  by  a  sermon  at  Nazazeth, 
which  is  a  promise  of  glad  tidings  to  the  poor,  and  ends 
it  in  his  ascension  with  a  promise  of  his  return ;  Paul 
lives  on  promise  as  on  manna  heaven  descended, 
declaring,  in  the  midst  of  great  tribulations,  "  We 
are  saved  by  hope ;  for  what  a  man  seeth  why  doth 
he  yet  hope  for  ?"  and  John  closes  the  canon  with  a 
book  whose  glory  is  like  the  glory  of  a  setting  sun, 
which  promises  a  clear  to-morrow. 

The  reader  must  further  reflect  that  this  promise  cha- 
racter of  the  Bible  is  not  common  to  all  religious  lite- 


132  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

rature.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  an  exclusive  character- 
istic of  the  Bible.  Other  religious  literature  contains 
aspirations  and  prayers  for  blessing,  which  assume  to 
be  revelations  of  truth  and  laws  emanating  from  the 
Deity  ;  but  the  Bible  is  the  only  book,  and  the  Jew- 
ish literature  is  the  only  literature,  which  contains 
promises  of  gifts  not  otherwise  obtainable,  and  the 
record  of  a  restful  possession  of  them  in  experience. 
Many  another  poet  has  with  David  thirsted  for  God  as 
the  hart  thirsted  for  the  water  brooks,  but  no  other 
has  rivalled  this  experience :  "  He  maketh  me  to  lie 
down  in  green  pastures ;  he  leadeth  me  beside  the 
still  waters;  he  restoreth  my  soul ;  he  leadeth  me  in 
the  paths  of  righteousness  for  his  name's  sake."  If  it 
be  said  that  the  Koran  promises  heaven  to  the  Mo- 
hammedan, and  the  Book  of  Mormon  a  millennium  to 
the  Latter-Day  Saints,  the  answer  is  that  both  the 
Koran  and  the  Book  of  Mormon  were  produced  long 
after  the  Bible,  and  their  promises  are  only  faint 
reflections  of  those  which  the  Bible  contains.  It  may 
be  asserted  with  confidence,  and  without  fear  of  suc- 
cessful contradiction,  that  the  Bible  is  the  only  book 
which  assumes  to  embody  promises  of  an  inheritance 
about  which  but  for  such  promise  man  could  not 
know,  and  which,  therefore,  he  could  not  possess. 

Having  made  this  statement  in  a  public  lecture,  a 
friendly  critic,  who  is  far  more  familiar  than  I  am 
with  the  Vedas,  questioned  whether  the  statement 
were  not  too  strong,  and  sent  me,  at  my  request, 


THE   BOOK   OF   PROMISE.  133 

some  extracts  from  those  ancient  hymns,  thought  to 
indicate  a  promise  of  forgiveness  of  sins.  I  give  this 
portion  of  the  letter,  with  the  accompanying  extracts, 
so  that  the  reader  may  for  himself  compare  the  clear- 
est promises  of  divine  mercy  to  be  found  in  the 
Vedas  with  the  utterances  of  David,  Isaiah,  and 
Paul: 

"  '  To  Varuna  (Greek  ovpavoi).  Whatever  command,  O  God 
Varuna,  as  mortals,  we  have  broken  day  by  day,  deliver  us  not  up  to 
the  deadly  weapon  of  the  wicked  one  nor  the  wrath  of  the  angry. 
May  we  release  thy  thoughts  to  forgive  us  (by  our  songs),  as  a  chariot- 
eer, his  steed  who  is  tethered  in  the  broad  field.  For  my  longings 
fly  forth  to  desire  for  blessing  as  birds  to  their  nests.  When  shall  we 
gain  for  ourselves  the  far-seeing  Lord,  Varuna,  to  favor  us  ?  ' 

'*  Then  follows  a  beautiful  description  of  Varuna,  as  the  Lord  of 
Nature,  knowing  the  course  of  the  winds,  the  birds  in  the  air,  and  the 
ships  of  the  sea.  Then  the  poet,  feeling,  as  these  first  verses  indicate, 
the  anger  of  Varuna,  who  is  also  Lord  of  the  moral  world,  and  desi- 
rous of  soothing  him,  turns  again  to  supplication  :  ■  Yearning  for  the 
Far-seeing,  my  thoughts  go  forth,  as  cows  to  their  pasture  land.  Let 
us  speak  now  together  again,  since  now  Agni  like  a  priest  receives 
the  sweet  drink  offered.' 

"  'Like  a  true  child  of  nature,'  so  says  Max  Muller,  in  comment 
upon  this  hymn,  '  he  offers  honey,  which  the  god  is  sure  to  like,  and 
then  appeals  to  him  as  to  a  friend  :  "Now  be  good,  and  let  us  speak 
together  again."  This  may  seem  childish,  but  there  is  a  real  and 
childish  faith  in  it,  and,  like  all  childish  faith,  it  is  rewarded  by  some 
kind  of  a  response.  For  at  that  moment  the  poet  takes  a  higher  tone. 
He  fancies  he  sees  the  god  and  his  chariot  passing  by  ;  he  feels  that 
his  prayer  has  been  heard.  '  Now  I  saw  the  god  who  is  all  visible  ; 
now  I  behold  his  chariot  above  the  earth.  He  must  have  accepted 
my  prayers.' 

"  I  have  given  a  very  literal  rendering,  that  the  turn  of  the  phrase 
may  not  imply  more  than  the  original  permits.  In  another  hymn  to 
this  '  supreme  and  mighty  Varuna  '  is  this  prayer :  '  What  great  sin  is 
it,  Varuna,  for  which  thou  seeketh  to  slay  thy  worshipper  and  friend  ? 
Tell  me,  O  unassailable  and  self-dependent  god  !  and,  freed  from  sin. 


134  IN  AID   0F   FAITH. 

I  shall  speedily  come  to  thee  with  adoration.  Release  us  from  the  sins 
of  our  fathers  and  our  own.'  This  is  Muir's  rendering.  Elsewhere 
Varuna  is  said  to  punish  evil-doers,  but,  in  wide  benevolence,  to  be 
gracious  unto  the  sinner  who  prays  for  forgiveness,  and  to  •  untie,  like 
a  rope,  and  remove  sin.'  " 

The  only  approximation  to  promise  in  these  ex- 
tracts, it  will  be  seen,  is  in  the  last  sentence,  and  that 
is  rather  the  expression  of  a  hope  than  the  explicit 
revelation  of  a  divine  promise.  Contrast  with  them 
such  a  passage  in  our  Bible  as  Isaiah  i.  18  :  "  Come 
now,  and  let  us  reason  together,  saith  the  Lord ; 
though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  snow ; 
though  they  be  like  crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool." 
The  heathen  has  a  longing  which  itself  becomes  at 
last  a  hope :  "  He  must  have  accepted  my  prayers  ;  " 
the  Hebrew  has  what  purports  to  be  an  explicit 
promise  coming  direct  from  his  God — a  "  thus  saith 
the  Lord  " — as  the  ground  of  his  confident  assurance 
in  a  divine  forgiveness.  The  reader  should  remem- 
ber that  I  am  not  arguing  that  this  promise  does 
come  from  God  ;  that  is  a  question  to  be  considered 
hereafter ;  I  am  only  pointing  out  that  the  Bible 
claims  to  be  the  book  of  God's  promise ;  that  in  this 
claim  it  is  peculiar;  that  it  embodies  on  almost  every 
page,  and  woven  into  its  very  structure,  what  purport 
to  be  divine  promises  ;  and  that  in  this  respect  it  dif- 
fers from  all  pagan  religious  literatures  the  world 
over.  To  believe  in  the  Bible  is  to  believe  that  the 
claim  which  the  Bible  thus  makes  for  itself  is  true ; 
that  it  is  the  promise  of  God  ;  that  it  embodies  his 


THE   BOOK   OF    PROMISE.  1 35 

will  and  purpose  concerning  his  children  ;  that  we 
can  rely  upon  its  assertions,  and  enter  into  the  inher- 
itance which  it  claims  to  bequeath  to  us.  This  is 
what  we  mean  by  declaring  that  the  Bible  is  the 
Word  of  God  ;  not  that  it  consists  of  God's  words,  as 
dictated  by  him,  that  it  is  written  by  his  amanuenses ; 
but  that  it  is  his  promise.  When  we  say  that  we  be- 
lieve in  God's  Word,  we  mean  that  we  trust  in  it  as 
his  promise. 

To  believe  in  the  Bible  is  not,  then,  to  believe  that 
any  particular  books  were  written  by  any  particular 
authors,  as  that  Deuteronomy  was  written  by  Moses, 
Daniel  by  the  prophet  Daniel,  or  2  Peter  by  the 
Apostle  Peter.  One  may  believe,  with  Robertson 
Smith,  that  Deuteronomy  was  written  long  after  the 
death  of  Moses ;  with  Dean  Plumptre,  that  Ecclesi- 
astes  was  written  by  an  unknown  author  in  the 
second  or  third  centuries  before  Christ ;  with  Dean 
Stanley,  that  there  were  two  Isaiahs,  whose  produc- 
tions are  combined  in  the  one  book  of  Isaiah ;  and 
yet  he  may  believe  in  the  Bible  as  heartily  as  if  he 
believed  that  Moses  wrote  the  entire  Pentateuch, 
Daniel  the  book  of  Daniel,  Solomon  the  book  of 
Ecclesiastes,  and  the  one  Isaiah  the  book  which  bears 
his  name.  Questions  of  authorship  are  literary  ques- 
tions, not  religious  questions ;  and  the  value  of  the 
Bible  as  a  literature  which  embodies  the  promise  of 
God  does  not  in  the  least  depend  upon  them.  The 
authority  of  a  will  does  not  depend  upon  the  lawyer 


136  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

or  lawyer's  clerk  who  drafted  it ;  nor  does  the  author- 
ity  of  the  Bible   depend  upon  the  human  scriveners 
who  reduced  its  promises  to  writing.     Nor   does  be- 
lief in  the  Bible  involve  belief  in  any  particular  theory 
of  inspiration,  or  in   any  claim,  orthodox   or   other- 
wise, made  for  it.     This  is  to  believe  in  the  theory, 
not   in    the  Bible  itself.     Whether,  to  continue   the 
figure,  the  father  drafts  the  will  himself  with  his  own 
hand,  or  dictates  its  provisions  to  a  copyist,  or  gives 
a  written  memorandum  of  his  instructions  to  his  so- 
licitor, or  simply  verbally  tells  him  how  he  wishes  the 
estate  disposed  of,  is  a  question  wholly  immaterial  in 
determining  the  validity  of  the  will  itself.     That  de- 
pends upon  one  question  and  one  only :  whether  the 
document  expresses  in  a  legal   manner  the   will  and 
purpose  of  the  one  who   had  a  right  to  bestow  the 
property.     Whether  God  dictated  the  Bible  word  for 
word,  or  brooded  over  the  spirit  of  his   chosen   ones 
until    they    caught  the  divine    purpose  by  spiritual 
contact  and  were  able   to   interpret  it,  is  a  question 
wholly    unnecessary    to    determine    in    determining 
whether  the  Bible  is  God's  Word  or  not.     Our  only 
question  is,  Does  the   Bible   really  represent  the  will 
and  purpose  of  God  toward  his  children  ?     If  it  does, 
the  question  by  what  hands  that  will  was  recorded, 
and  the  question  by  what  psychological   method    it 
was  communicated  to   the  penman  who  interpreted 
it,  is  wholly  immaterial. 

I  do  not,  therefore,  attempt  to  give   a  categorical 


THE   BOOK   OF   PROMISE.  l$7 

reply  to  my  correspondent's  inquiries.  The  question 
of  the  authorship  of  2  Peter,  of  the  canonicity  of  Sol- 
omon's Song  and  Esther,  of  the  authenticity  of  the 
last  eleven  verses  of  the  Gospel  of  Mark  or  the  first 
eleven  verses  of  the  eighth  chapter  of  John,  are  for  the 
most  part  purely  literary  questions,  to  be  determined 
as  the  questions  respecting  the  authorship  of  doubtful 
orations  of  Cicero  or  of  Dialogues  of  Plato  are  to  be  de- 
termined. Doubt  concerning  them  does  not  involve  in 
doubt  the  main  question.  That  question  is,  Shall  we 
believe  that  the  Bible  is  what  it  claims  to  be?  Shall  we 
believe  that  this  literature  really  embodies  the  promise 
of  God  to  his  children  ?  Can  we  fulfil  the  conditions 
and  rely  upon  the  covenant  ?  When  I  read  in  Isaiah, 
"  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  unrighteous 
man  his  thoughts,  and  let  him  return  unto  the  Lord, 
and  he  will  have  mercy  upon  him,  and  to  our  God,  for 
he  will  abundantly  pardon,"  can  I  trust  that  as  God's 
promise,  and  be  sure  that  my  sins  are  forgiven,  and  I 
have  no  need  longer  to  bear  the  burden  of  them  ?  Or 
is  this  only  what  an  old  Hebrew  poet  thought  about 
it  ?  When  I  am  wearied  with  the  labors  of  my  profess- 
ion, when  my  burden  grows  heavier  than  1  can  bear, 
when  I  cannot  endure  the  responsibilities  which  I  have 
not  sought,  and  yet  cannot  lay  aside,  and  I  hear  a  voice 
saying  to  me,  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest,"  can  I  be- 
lieve it,  and  come,  and  find  rest,  and,  like  David,  lay 
me  down  in  peace  and  sleep  ?    or  is  this  only  what 


138  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

the  son  of  the  Galilean  carpenter  thought  about  it? 
There  is  no  question  more  worthy  of  serious  con- 
sideration than  this  of  careful  pondering,  of  wise  judg- 
ing. If  the  Bible  is  not  what  it  pretends  to  be,  if  its 
promises  of  rest  and  strength  and  guidance  and  com- 
fort and  forgiveness  are  only  the  hopes  of  mortals  self- 
wrought  for  self-comfort,  not  promises  God-given  to 
God's  children,  the  delusion  ought  to  be  exposed  and 
the  happy  dreamers  awakened  from  their  dreams. 
For  the  sternest  truth  is  better  than  the  most  deli- 
cious falsehood.  If  the  Bible  is  what  it  pretends  to  be, 
if  its  promises  are  God's  promises,  not  merely  man's 
hopes,  if  it  can  be  trusted  in  the  darkness  for  light, 
in  sorrow  for  comfort,  in  weakness  for  strength,  in 
despair  for  hope,  no  knowledge  is  worth  more  to  hu- 
man souls  than  the  knowledge  which  it  brings  them. 
I  believe  that  the  Bible  is  what  it  claims  to  be,  the 
Word  of  God  ;  that  its  promises,  binding  together  in 
one  harmonious  whole  this  various  literature,  are 
God's  promises,  and  can  be  safely  and  surely  trusted. 
The  reason  why  I  believe  this  I  reserve  for  a  future 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    EARTHLY    INHERITANCE. 

THE  reasons  assigned  in  books  on  the  evidences 
of  Christianity  are  not  reasons  upon  which  the 
faith  of  most  Christians  in  the  Bible  really  depends. 
If  any  one  doubts  this  assertion  let  him  try  the  follow- 
ing experiment :  let  him  submit  any  ordinarily  intel- 
ligent lay  Christian  to  an  examination  on  the  eviden- 
ces of  Christianity,  and  see  how  good  an  account  he 
can  give  of  that  branch  of  theology.  The  grounds  of 
Christian  faith  in  the  Bible  are  not  chiefly  intellectual : 
they  are  in  experience,  not  in  philosophy.  I  do  not 
propose  in  this  article  to  attempt  to  restate  the  intel- 
lectual argument,  though  I  recognize  its  validity ;  but 
following  the  general  course  of  thought  pursued 
throughout  these  chapters,  I  shall  try  to  indicate  the 
reasons  in  experience  for  the  Christian's  faith  in  the 
Christian's  Bible — reasons  of  equal  validity  with  the 
uneducated  and  the  educated,  with  those  who  can 
state  them  and  with  those  who  only  feel  them  with- 
out being  able  to  analyze  them. 

I  have  said  that  the  Bible  claims  to  be  the  book  of 
God's  promise  to  his  children,  and  that  to  believe  in 

139 


140  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

the  Bible  is  to  believe,  not  in  any  particular  author- 
ship of  particular  books,  nor  in  any  particular  theories 
of  inspiration,  but  to  believe  that  its  promises  are 
really  God's  promises,  and  can  be  relied  upon.  All 
Christians,  whatever  their  opinions  about  the  author- 
ship of  Deuteronomy,  Daniel,  Ecclesiastes,  or  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  whatever  their  theories  of  inspiration, 
believe  this,  and  the  real  ground  of  their  belief  appears 
to  me  to  be  the  fact  that  we  are  living  in  the  age  of 
the  fulfilment  of  these  promises.  We  have  no  need  to 
go  back  to  questions  respecting  the  original  authen- 
tication of  the  will,  because  it  has  passed  probate, 
and  the  inheritance  has  been  turned  over  to  us.  I 
can  best  make  my  meaning  clear  by  specific  illustra- 
tions. 

The  first  thing  which  this  will  or  testament  bestows 
upon  the  children  of  God  is  supremacy  over  nature. 
The  command  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  a  prom- 
ise :  "  Replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it,  and  have 
dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl 
of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon 
the  earth."  The  reader  must  recollect  that  this  prom- 
ise was  given  at  a  time  when  none  of  those  who  lis- 
tened to  it  believed  that  any  such  supremacy  belonged 
to  mankind.  It  was  given — to  go  no  further  back — 
through  Moses  to  the  just  emancipated  children  of 
Israel,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai.  They  had  been 
educated  under  a  religion  which  inculcated  nature 
worship.     They  had  been  taught  in  Egypt  to  believe 


THE   EARTHLY   INHERITANCE.  14I 

that  the  sun  was  a  god,  the  moon  was  a  god,  the 
stars  were  gods,  the  river  Nile  was  a  god,  the  cattle 
that  browsed  along  its  bank,  the  crocodiles  that  bur- 
rowed in  its  mud  and  hid  themselves  among  its  flags, 
were  gods.  The  world  was  deified  ;  man  was  its  serf 
and  its  worshipper.  The  first  message  of  revelation 
reversed  this  teaching.  "  These  are  not  your  gods," 
was  its  message  to  mankind.  "  Your  God  in  the  be- 
ginning made  the  sun  to  rule  the  day,  and  the  moon 
to  rule  the  night ;  he  made  the  earth  and  the  cattle 
that  feed  upon  it,  the  river  and  the  creeping  things 
that  hide  under  its  banks  ;  he  walks  upon  the  wings 
of  the  winds,  and  the  lightnings  are  his  arrows,  and  he 
has  made  you,  serf  and  slave  that  you  have  been,  in 
his  image,  and  gives  you  the  sun  and  the  moon  and 
the  stars,  and  the  river,  and  the  cattle,  and  the  creep- 
ing things,  and  all  that  you  have  accepted  as  your  gods 
and  have  worshipped  in  fear  and  served  in  trem- 
bling, to  be  your  serfs.  Replenish  the  earth  and  sub- 
due it,  and  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
and  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing 
that  moveth  upon  the  earth."  The  secret  of  all  mod- 
ern science  is  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis ;  at  the 
sound  of  this  message  superstition  shrivels  up  and 
shrinks  away.  So  long  as  men  believed  the  cow  to  be 
a  divinity,  how  could  they  kill  and  eat  her  ?  So  long 
as  they  believed  the  light  to  be  a  thunderbolt  of  Jove, 
how  dare  they  catch  it  and  set  it  to  their  service  ? 
Belief  in  the  dominion  of  spirit  over  matter,  of  mind 


142  IN  AID   OF  FAITH. 

over  nature,  of  man  over  the  physical  and  the  animal 
creation,  was  essential  to  the  possession  of  that  do- 
minion. 

Surely  no  one  now  doubts  the  truth  of  this  promise. 
He  may  doubt  whether  God  gave  it,  whether  Moses 
received  it,  whether  it  dates  from  the  fifteenth  century 
before  Christ ;  but  he  does  not  doubt  that  the  domin- 
ion is  his.  That  dominion  is  no  longer  an  anticipa- 
tion, it  is  a  fact ;  it  is  no  longer  a  prophecy,  it  is  history. 
Not  strong  of  limb,  we  cage  the  lion,  and  make  the  ele- 
phant do  our  bidding ;  not  fleet  of  foot,  we  outstrip 
the  gazelle,  and  run  across  the  continent  by  day  and 
night  without  a  pause  and  without  fatigue ;  without 
a  fin  we  swim  the  ocean,  and  arrive  upon  the  other 
shore  rested,  not  wearied,  by  our  journey;  the  fire 
and  water,  which  the  ancients  worshiped,  we  marry, 
and  their  child,  steam,  we  compel  to  do  our  drudgery 
for  us ;  the  thunderbolts  of  Jove,  before  which  they 
trembled,  we  catch  and  tame  as  carrier  pigeons  to 
carry  our  messages  round  the  world. 

Next  among  the  promises  of  this  literature  of 
promise  is  that  of  peace  and  good  government  founded 
upon  general  intelligence  and  general  virtue.  It  is 
prominent  throughout  the  Old  Testament;  it  re- 
appears, though  in  less  prominence,  dimmed  there  by 
the  promise  of  even  better  things,  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. A  single  typical  promise  may  serve  as  an 
illustration  of  its  class.  I  quote  from  Isaiah  ii.  3,  4 : 
"  Come  ye,  and  let  us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  the 


THE   EARTHLY   INHERITANCE.  143 

Lord,  to  the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob ;  and  he  will 
teach  us  of  his  ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  his  paths  :  for 
out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the  law,  and  the  word  of  the 
Lord  from  Jerusalem.  And  he  shall  judge  among 
the  nations,  and  shall  rebuke  many  people  ;  and  they 
shall  beat  their  swords  into  plowshares,  and  their 
spears  into  pruning-hooks  ;  nation  shall  not  lift  up 
sword  against  nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any 
more." 

If  the  reader  will  analyze  this  promise  he  will  see 
that  it  contains  the  three  civic  blessings  which  are 
elsewhere  in  the  Old  Testament  promised  separately; 
first,  universal  education  and  an  enlightened  con- 
science; second,  peace  ;  third,  productive  industry.  If 
he  will  further  reflect,  he  will  perceive,  too,  that  this 
promise  was  made  at  a  time  when  its  fulfilment  must 
have  seemed  beyond  the  bounds  of  possibility.  The 
promises  of  the  Bible  always  transcend  the  rational 
expectation  of  the  times. 

The  earliest  social  organization  is  the  family  :  the 
earliest  government  is  the  patriarchal.1    Abraham  was 

1  That  which  has  always  seemed  clear  to  readers  of  the  Bible  is  re- 
cognized as  unquestionably  true  by  such  writers  as  Sir  Henry  Maine 
and  Herbert  Spencer.  I  quote  a  single  paragraph  from  the  former 
author  :  "The  effect  of  the  evidence  derived  from  comparative  juris- 
prudence is  to  establish  that  view  of  the  primeval  condition  of  the  hu- 
man race  which  is  known  as  the  Patriarchal  Theory.  There  is  no 
doubt,  of  course,  that  this  theory  was  originally  based  on  the  Scriptu- 
ral history  of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs  in  Lower  Asia  ;  but,  as  has  been 
explained  already,  its  connection  with  Scripture  rather  militated  than 
otherwise  against  its  reception  as  a  complete  theory,  since  the  majority 


144  IN   AID   OF  FAITH. 

President,  Senate,  House  of  Representatives,  Supreme 
Court,  High  Priest  and  Preacher,  and  Public  School 
Superintendent  for  his  little  empire.  These  families, 
involved  in  constant  rivalries  and  contentions,  were 
gradually  amalgamated  in  tribes,  with  a  very  loose 
organization,  and  still  preserved  the  patriarchal  type. 
The  elder,  or  Sheikh,  was  the  father  of  his  people, 
and  the  relation  between  him  and  the  tribe  was  a 
modified  form  of  the  parental  one.  These  tribes  were 
engaged  in  constant  warfare  with  one  another,  and 
gradually  combined  in  a  quasi  military  organization, 
now  for  aggressive  warfare,  now  for  defence  against 
the  aggressions  of  another.  This  was  the  historic 
origin  of  nationality.  Such  national  communities 
were  at  first,  and  for  a  long  time,  purely  military 
organizations.  Their  object  was  warfare,  offensive  or 
defensive.  Agriculture  —  the  only  form  of  early 
industry — was    relegated  to  women  or  slaves,  or  a 

of  the  inquirers  who  till  recently  addressed  themselves  with  most  ear- 
nestness to  the  colligation  of  social  phenomena  were  either  influenced 
by  the  strongest  prejudice  against  Hebrew  antiquities  or  by  the  strong- 
est desire  to  construct  their  system  without  the  assistance  of  religious 
records.  Even  now  there  is,  perhaps,  a  disposition  to  undervalue 
these  accounts,  or  rather  to  decline  generalizing  from  them,  as  forming 
part  of  the  traditions  of  a  Semitic  people.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however, 
that  the  legal  testimony  comes  nearly  exclusively  from  the  institutions 
of  societies  belonging  to  the  Indo-European  stock,  the  Romans,  Hin- 
dus, and  Sclavonians  supplying  the  greater  part  of  it;  and,  indeed,  the 
difficulty,  at  the  present  stage  of  the  inquiry,  is  to  know  where  to  stop; 
to  say  of  what  races  of  men  it  is  not  allowable  to  lay  down  that  the 
society  in  which  they  are  united  was  originally  organized  on  the  pa- 
triarchal model."  (See  "  Ancient  Law;"  by  Sir  Henry  Maine  ;  pp. 
118,  119.) 


THE   EARTHLY   INHERITANCE.  145 

distinctly  lower  social  order.  The  chief,  or  king,  or 
emperor,  or  tsar,  whatever  his  official  designation 
might  be,  was  a  commander-in-chief,  not  only  of 
the  military,  but  also  of  the  non- military  forces  ;  to 
him  absolute  obedience  was  due,  in  his  hands  was 
the  power  of  life  and  death  over  all  his  subjects.  A 
military  organization  cannot  be  democratic;  and 
until  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages  every  nation  was 
a  military  organization,  and  therefore  every  nation 
was  unconcealedly  despotic.  There  were  occasional 
attempts  at  freedom ;  but  all  such  attempts  prior  to 
education  and  pacific  organization  were  necessarily 
and  inevitably  failures.2 

2  "  Fulfilment  of  these  requirements,  that  there  shall  be  complete 
corporate  action,  that  to  this  end  the  non-combatant  part  shall  be  oc- 
cupied in  providing  for  the  combatant  part,  that  the  entire  aggre- 
gate shall  be  strongly  bound  together,  and  that  the  units  composing  it 
must  have  their  individualities  in  life,  liberty,  and  property  thereby 
subordinated,  pre-supposes  a  coercive  instrumentality.  No  such  union 
for  corporate  action  can  be  achieved  without  a  powerful  controlling 
agency.  On  remembering  the  fatal  results  caused  by  divisions  of  coun- 
sels in  war,  or  by  separation  into  factions  in  face  of  an  enemy,  we  see 
that  chronic  militancy  tends  to  develop  a  despotism  ;  since,  other 
things  being  equal,  those  societies  will  habitually  survive  in  which,  by 
its  aid,  the  corporate  action  is  made  complete.  And  this  involves  a 
system  of  centralization.  The  trait  made  familiar  to  us  by  an  army, 
in  which,  under  a  commander-in-chief,  there  are  secondary  command- 
ers over  large  masses,  and  so  on  down  to  the  ultimate  divisions,  must 
characterize  the  social  organization  at  large.  A  militant  society  re- 
quires a  regulative  structure  of  this  kind,  since  otherwise  its  corporate 
action  cannot  be  made  most  effectual.  Without  such  grades  of  govern- 
ing centres  diffused  throughout  the  non-combatant  part  as  well  as  the 
combatant  part,  the  entire  forces  of  the  aggregate  cannot  be  prompt- 
ly put  forth.  Unless  the  workers  are  under  a  control  akin  to  that 
10 


14^  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

At  a  time,  then,  when  all  political  organizations 
were  not  only  military  in  their  aim  and  in  their 
structure,  but  were  required  by  the  necessities  of 
their  existence  to  be  so,  when  every  nation  was  or- 
ganized for  warfare,  aggressive  or  defensive,  and 
therefore  was  necessarily  despotic,  when  the  only 
authority  recognized  among  men  was  the  authority 
of  a  superior  force,  when  absolute  authority  and 
military  equipment  were  requisite  conditions  of 
national  life,  there  arose  in  one  comparatively  small 
nation  a  line  of  poet-teachers  who  declared  that  the 
time  would  come  when  education  would  be  univer- 
sal, when  law  would  have  no  other  enforcement 
than  reverence  for  conscience  and  for  God,  when 
military  equipment  would  be  laid  aside,  when  the 
ignoble  pursuits  of  peaceful  industry  would  take  the 
place  of  the  honored  profession  of  war,  when  swords 
would  be  turned  into  plowshares  and  spears  into 
pruning  hooks,  and  when  men  would  no  longer  be 
trained  to  the  arts  of  war.  The  promise  was  made 
nearly  2,000  years  before  the  world  can  be  said  to 
have  seen  even  the  beginning  of  the  fulfilment  of  the 

which  the  fighters  are  under,  their  indirect  aid  cannot  be  insured  in 
full  amount  and  with  due  quickness.  And  this  is  the  form  of  a 
society  characterized  by  status— a  society  the  members  of  which 
stand  one  toward  another  in  successive  grades  of  subordination. 
From  the  despot  down  to  the  slave  all  are  masters  of  those  below,  and 
subjects  of  those  above.  The  relation  of  the  child  to  the  father,  of  the 
father  to  some  superior,  and  so  on  up  to  the  absolute  head,  is  one  in 
which  the  individual  of  lower  status  is  at  the  mercy  of  one  of 
higher  status."     "  Political  Institutions ,"  p.  662.  —Herbert  Spencer. 


THE  EARTHLY   INHERITANCE.  1 47 

prediction,  before  even  the  possibility  of  its  attain- 
ment dawned  upon  political  organizations  or  philo- 
sophic thinkers. 

But  to-day  he  must  be  dull  indeed  who  doubts  the 
promise,  who  doubts,  to  employ  the  philosophic 
phraseology  into  which  Herbert  Spencer  has  uncon- 
sciously converted  the  glowing  poetry  of  Isaiah,  that, 
the  "  industrial  type  of  society  "  is  destined  to  sup- 
plant the  "  militant  type  of  society."  We  believe 
that  this  promise  of  peace  and  good  government  is 
the  promise  of  God,  because  we  live  in  the  age  of  its 
fulfilment.  We  live  in  a  country  in  which  education 
is  at  least  in  theory  universal,  and  in  which,  except 
in  a  few  of  the  great  cities,  and  in  the  Southern 
States,  which  have  not  yet  recovered  from  the 
blighting  effects  of  a  despotic  form  of  society  followed 
by  a  devastating  war,  that  theory  is  measurably  well 
realized  in  practice.  In  every  village  are  the  school- 
house  and  the  church,  keeping  pace  with  the  rail- 
road, the  telegraph  office,  and  the  warehouse — the 
school-house  our  guarantee  that  religion  will  not 
degenerate  into  superstition,  the  church  our  pledge 
that  education  will  not  degenerate  into  atheism  and 
irreligion.  Forty  separate  nations  are  united  in  one, 
with  a  chosen  arbitrator  to  settle  all  disputes  between 
them.  The  mail-clad  warrior  has  long  since  disap- 
peared ;  the  pistol  and  the  bowie-knife  are  known 
only  in  frontier  settlements,  and  are  disappearing 
even  there.     Even  our  policemen  for  the  most  part 


148  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

are  armed  only  with  a  club ;  the  star  and  uniform, 
insignia  of  authority,  are  ordinarily  sufficient  to  quell 
resistance.  Our  army  is  a  living  skeleton,  and  our 
navy  a  dead  one.  The  law  goes  out  of  Zion,  and  the 
nation  depends  for  its  peace  and  security,  not  on 
sword  and  spear,  not  on  army  or  police,  but  on  the 
educated  conscience  and  the  enlightened  self-interest 
of  her  people.  The  only  army  is  the  army  of 
preachers  and  school-teachers.  She  learns  war  no 
more ;  she  studies  only  the  arts  of  peace  and  of  pro- 
ductive industry. 

One  may  question  whether  the  second  chapter  of 
Isaiah  was  written  by  the  same  poet  who  wrote  the 
fifty- fifth;  he  may  doubt  the  orthodox  theory  of  in- 
spiration, if  he  can  find  out  what  it  is ;  he  may  have 
one  of  his  own,  or  may  even  do  tolerably  well  with- 
out a  theory ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  see  how,  living  in 
the  United  States  of  America  in  this  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, he  can  doubt  that  he  is  living  in  a  country 
where  education  is  general  and  prospectively  univer- 
sal, where  law  is  enforced  by  conscience,  not  by 
armed  forces,  where  military  equipment  has  given 
place  to  industrial  equipment,  where  arts  are  pacific, 
not  warlike ;  in  brief,  in  a  country  whose  restraining 
forces  are  the  church  and  the  schoolhouse,  not  the 
sword,  and  whose  aim  is  production,  not  war.  Nor, 
if  he  reflects  on  the  condition  of  the  world  at  the 
time  those  promises  of  peace,  freedom,  education,  and 
good  government  were   made,  which   Isaiah  has  so 


THE    EARTHLY    INHERITANCE.  149 

tersely  summed  up  in  a  single  sentence,  is  it  easy  to 
see  how  he  can  doubt  that  the  vision  and  the  prom- 
ise came  from  the  God,  whose  guidance  has  led  the 
nations  of  the  earth  up  to  its  fulfilment. 

It  must  be  added,  in  completing  our  view  of  this 
branch  of  the  subject,  that  not  only  are  supremacy 
over  nature,  and  peace,  and  good  government  prom- 
ised by  the  Bible  as  a  part  of  God's  bequest  to  his 
children,  not  only  were  these  promises  made  at  a 
time  when,  and  to  a  people  to  whom,  the  fulfilment 
seemed  so  absolutely  incredulous  that  there  is  abun- 
dant evidence  that  they  did  not  grasp  the  significance 
of  the  promises,  but  even  now,  in  our  own  time,  the 
fulfilment  of  these  promises  is  practically  confined 
to  what  are  known  as  Bible  lands.  Civilization  is 
very  often  accredited  somewhat  vaguely  to  the  nine- 
teenth century.  But  the  nineteenth  century  exists 
in  Africa,  in  India,  in  China,  as  well  as  in  Europe 
and  America,  though  the  peoples  who  dwell  there 
have  no  more  of  modern  civilization  than  they  had 
received  from  Christian  Europe  and  America.  We 
are  not  accustomed  to  think  of  railroads,  telegraphs, 
insurance  companies,  banking,  and  the  credit  system 
as  Christian  institutions,  but  they  are  wholly  confined 
to  Christian  lands.  No  railroad  has  ever  been  built, 
or  telegraph  constructed,  or  insurance  business  organ- 
ized, or  banking  system  formed,  or  great  credit  sys- 
tem instituted  outside  of  Christian  nationalities, 
unless  it  has  been  imported  from  Christian  nationali- 


>50  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

ties.  Even  so  necessary  an  adjunct  of  modern  civili- 
zation as  the  post-office  was  wholly  unknown  to  the 
ancients,  and  is  wholly  unknown  to  the  moderns, 
except  as  Christian  people  have  established  it,  or  pa- 
gan nations  have  borrowed  it  from  them.  And  even 
its  transplantation  from  Christian  to  pagan  soils  has 
been  attended  with  great  difficulties.  Some  years 
ago  the  Shah  of  Persia,  returning  from  England  to 
his  native  land,  undertook  to  inaugurate  a  post-office 
system  there.  But  the  fundamental  conditions  of 
honesty  were  wanting ;  he  was  obliged  to  abandon 
the  effort,  and  I  do  not  think  it  has  ever  been  attempt- 
ed again.  As  to  freedom,  peace,  and  good  govern- 
ment, they  are  absolutely  unknown  outside  of 
Christendom,  and  very  imperfectly  known,  even 
inside  of  Christendom.  China  has  been  swept  with 
war  as  forests  by  fire ;  India  is  kept  in  tolerably 
peaceful  condition  only  because  in  subjection  to  the 
dominant  Englishman  ;  and  the  state  of  Africa  is  still 
a  state  of  chronic  war  between  tribes  whose  relations 
of  amity  to  each  other  are  not  much  superior  to  those 
maintained  by  the  lions  and  other  beasts  of  the  Afri- 
can wilds.  If  the  reader  will  put  in  imagination  a 
map  of  the  world  in  Mercator's  projection  before 
him,  if  he  will  paint  in  light  colors  the  civilized  lands, 
shading  off  into  darker  and  yet  darker  colors  until  he 
reaches  those  which  possess  neither  national,  political 
nor  industrial  civilization,  but  live  in  a  state  of  nature, 
he  will  find  in  his  map  a  visible  illustration   of  the 


THE   EARTHLY   INHERITANCE.  151 

fact  that  supremacy  over  nature,  and  peace,  and  good 
government  are  the  productions  as  well  as  the  promi- 
ses of  the  Bible.  He  will  find  protestant  England 
and  America  dotted  over  with  schoolhouses,  netted 
over  with  railroads  and  telegraphs,  resounding  with 
the  music  of  industry,  with  wealth  far  too  unequally 
distributed,  but  yet  far  more  equally  distributed  than 
in  any  other  lands,  with  armies  relatively  insignifi- 
cant, and  a  public  sentiment  wholly  averse  to  war. 
As  he  crosses  the  channel  into  Roman  Catholic 
France  and  Spain  and  Italy,  he  will  find  his  map  be- 
ginning to  assume  a  grayish  tint,  with  lighter  shades 
in  the  protestant  portion  of  Germany ;  as  he  travels 
eastward,  he  will  find  it  growing  darker  and  darker, 
until  in  China  and  India,  except  where  western 
Christianity  and  western  civilization  have  somewhat 
lighted  up  the  darkness,  he  will  find  the  ignorant 
stolidity  and  superstition  of  the  common  people  what 
it  was  in  the  days  of  Confucius  and  Buddha,  the 
means  of  intercommunication  unchanged,  the  forms 
of  trade  the  same,  equipment  of  industry  no  better, 
the  burdens  of  a  despotic  government  no  lighter  ;  and 
Africa  will  be  as  black  as  when  the  Pharaohs  pushed 
their  conquests  southward  toward  the  equator,  power- 
ful to  subdue,  but  powerless  to  civilize,  the  equatorial 
tribes. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE   SPIRITUAL   INHERITANCE. 

3  We  are  the  voices  of  the  wandering  wind, 
Which  moan  for  rest,  and  rest  can  never  find  ; 
Lo  !  as  the  wind  is,  so  is  mortal  life — 
A  moan,  a  sigh,  a  sob,  a  storm,  a  strife. 

"  Wherefore  and  whence  we  are  ye  cannot  know, 
Nor  where  life  springs,  nor  whither  life  doth  go  ; 
We  are  as  ye  are,  ghosts  from  the  inane  ; 
What  pleasure  have  we  of  our  changeful  pain  ? 

"  What  pleasure  hast  thou  of  thy  changeless  bliss? 
Nay,  if  love  lasted,  there  were  joy  in  this  ; 
But  life's  way  is  the  wind's  way  :  all  these  things 
Are  but  brief  voices  breathed  on  shifting  strings."  1 

THIS  moan  of  the  wandering  wind  which  Prince 
Syddartha  heard  the  Devas  play  in  the  se- 
cluded palace  where  his  father  vainly  hoped  he  would 
never  hear  the  sound  of  pain  or  see  the  sight  of 
death,  too  truly  interprets  the  continuous  moan  of 
life.  For  life  begins  with  a  cry  in  the  cradle,  and 
ends  with  a  moan  upon  the  dying  bed  ;  and  all  the 
way  from  the  cradle  to  the  death-bed  the  sigh  and 
the  sob  are  audible.  Into  many  lives  comes  laugh- 
ter ;  into  all  lives  come  tears.  Many  cups  sparkle 
at  the  brim ;  all  cups  have  bitterness  at  the  bottom. 

1  "  The  Light  of  Asia,"  Book  III. 


THE  SPIRITUAL  INHERITANCE.  1 53 

We  sketch  our  pattern,  fill  our  loom  with  gold  and 
silver  threads,  and  begin  our  weaving ;  but  however 
skilful  our  scheme,  and  however  deft  our  fingers, 
some  invisible  hand  intermeddles,  and  before  the 
pattern  is  completed  we  find  a  dark  thread  of  sorrow 
woven  into  it. 

How  this  universal  experience  of  disappointment 
and  of  death  shall  be  met  is  the  perpetual  problem 
both  of  religion  and  of  philosophy.  The  world  of 
thought  has  given  to  this  problem  two  answers : 
one  that  of  the  Stoic,  the  other  that  of  the  Epicu- 
rean. The  Stoic  declares  that  suffering  is  inextri- 
cably interwoven  into  life,  and  the  only  escape  from 
suffering  is  by  escape  from  life  ;  meanwhile  we  must 
bear  as  best  we  can  the  inevitable.  To  seek  exemp- 
tion is  to  seek  the  impossible.  To  seek  for  pleasure 
is  only,  by  intensifying  desire,  to  intensify  the  cer- 
tain disappointment.  The  only  beatitude  of  this 
philosophy  is  the  cynical  beatitude  of  Dean  Swift : 
*'  Blessed  are  they  that  do  not  expect  much,  for  they 
shall  not  be  disappointed. "  Its  consummate  phi- 
losophy is  that  of  Buddhism — existence  is  an  evil ; 
the  supreme  felicity  is  to  pass  out  of  the  realm  of 
consciousness. 

"  Sorrow  is 
Shadow  to  life,  moving  where  life  doth  move  ; 
Not  to  be  laid  aside  until  one  lays 
Living  aside,  with  all  its  changing  states — 
Birth,  growth,  decay,  love,  hatred,  pleasure,  pain, 
Being  and  doing."  ' 

1  "  The  Light  of  Asia,"  Book  VI. 


154  IN  AID   OF  FAITH. 

In  its  practical  form  it  flees  to  suicide  as  the  only 
refuge  from  the  inevitable  ills  of  life.  "  Against  all 
the  injuries  of  life,"  says  Seneca,  "  I  have  the  refuge 
of  death."  And  again,  "  Depart  from  life  as  your 
impulse  leads  you,  whether  it  be  by  the  sword  or 
the  knife,  or  the  poison  creeping  through  the  veins ; 
go  your  way  and  break  the  chains  of  slavery."  So 
great  at  one  time  in  the  Roman  Empire  was  the  pas- 
sion for  suicide,  under  the  teaching  of  the  "  Orator 
of  Death,"  that  Ptolemy,  it  is  said,  was  compelled  to 
banish  the  philosopher  from  Alexandria.1 

The  other  theory  from  the  same  premise  draws  a 
very  different  conclusion.  Life  is  shadowed  by  in- 
evitable sorrow ;  therefore  let  us  take  what  pleasure 
we  can  to-day,  and  forget  the  future.  Let  us  eat 
and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die.  The  Persian  poet 
and  the  Hindu  poet  interpret  life  alike  ;  to  both  life 
is  but  "  a  moan,  a  sigh,  a  sob,  a  storm,  a  strife  ;  "  but 
the  Persian  poet,  interpreter  of  the  Epicurean  phi- 
losophy, draws  a  very  different  conclusion : 

"  I  sometimes  think  that  never  blows  so  red 
The  rose  as  where  some  buried  Caesar  bled  ; 

That  every  hyacinth  the  garden  wears 
Dropt  in  her  lap  from  some  once  lovely  head. 

"  And  this  reviving  herb  whose  tender  green 
Fledges  the  river-lip  on  which  we  lean — 

Ah,  lean  upon  it  lightly  !  for  who  knows 
From  what  once  lovely  lip  it  springs  unseen  ! 

1  See  on  this  subject  Lecky's  "  History  of  European  Morals,"  Vol. 
I.,  pp.  221  and  235. 


THE  SPIRITUAL  INHERITANCE.  1 55 

"  Ah,  my  Beloved  !  fill  the  cup  that  clears 
Today  of  past  regret  and  future  fears  ; 

To-morrow  ! — Why,  to-morrow  I  may  be 
Myself  with  yesterday's  seven  thousand  years. "  ' 

While  Stoical  philosophy  leads  to  despair,  Epicu- 
rean philosophy  leads  to  the  death  of  all  that  is 
highest  and  best  in  human  instincts  and  affections. 
It  leads  inevitably  to  scepticism,  not  only  respect- 
ing God  or  the  gods,  but  also  respecting  human  vir- 
tues. It  regards  it  as  the  chief  end  of  philosophy 
to  banish,  as  illusions  of  the  imagination,  every  form 
of  religious  belief,  and  becomes  by  the  inevitable 
law  of  its  own  being  an  apology  for  vice,  or  at  best 
a  tranquil  indifferentism  toward  all  heroism  and 
virtue.2 

Now,  at  a  time  when  the  wisest  philosophy  and 
the  devoutest  religion  of  the  world  had  conceived  no 
better  solution  for  the  problem  of  pain  than  these 
solutions  of  these  two  antagonistic  philosophies, 
each  of  which  proposed  surrender  to  the  inevitable, 
the  one  a  cheerful  and  the  other  a  reluctant  sur- 
render, there  appeared  a  class  of  prophet-teachers 
who  professed  to  bring  a  promise  from  God  of  vic- 
tory over  suffering.  Repudiating  alike  the  sensuous 
self-indulgence  of  the  Epicurean  and  the  enforced 
serenity  in  despair  of  the  Stoic,  these  Hebrew 
prophets  asserted  that  for  those  who  would  accept 

1  Rubaiyat  of  Omar  Khayyam,  pp.  37,  38. 

2  See  Lecky's  "History  of  European   Morals,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  171- 
184. 


156  IN  AID   OF   FAITH. 

their  faith  God  would  "  swallow  up  death  in  vic- 
tory," "  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes,"  "  make 
them  more  than  conquerors,"  give  them  a  victory 
that  "  overcometh  the  world."  Sometimes  these 
promises  were  expressed  in  direct  form ;  sometimes 
they  were  expressed,  with  certainly  no  less  validity, 
as  experiences  of  fulfilment.  They  that  had  re- 
ceived this  word  of  hope  sang  songs  of  joy  in  the 
night :  "  Be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the 
world  ;  "  "  we  glory  in  tribulations  also  ;  "  "  we  are 
troubled  on  every  side,  yet  not  distressed ;  per- 
plexed, but  not  in  despair ;  persecuted,  but  not  for- 
saken; cast  down,  but  not  destroyed."  "I  take 
pleasure  in  infirmities,  in  reproaches,  in  necessities, 
in  persecution,  in  distresses,  for  Christ's  sake."  This 
is  the  promise  of  the  Christian  religion ;  a  promise 
not  of  deliverance  from  suffering,  but  of  victory  in 
suffering  ;  a  promise  summed  up  in  the  declaration  : 
"  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn,  for  they  shall  be 
comforted." 

It  is  not  strange  that  men  doubt  so  large — if  I  may 
be  pardoned  the  expression,  so  audacious — a  prom- 
ise as  this  :  for  it  must  be  confessed  that  a  great 
many  professed  Christians  give  very  little  evidence 
that  they  appreciate  it  or  believe  in  it  when  trouble 
comes  upon  them.  In  all  outward  signs  and  sem- 
blances of  grief,  and,  so  far  as  appearance  goes,  in 
much  of  inward  experience,  they  seem  to  sorrow 
exactly  as  others  who  have  no  hope.  They  do  not 
glory  in  tribulations,  or  take  pleasure  in  distresses, 


THE   SPIRITUAL  INHERITANCE.  1 57 

and  count  it  enough  if  by  their  Christian  principle 
they  are  restrained  from  drowning  their  sorrow  with 
the  Epicurean  in  pleasurable  excitements,  or  from 
seeking  with  the  Stoic  to  escape  it  in  the  oblivion  of 
forgetfulness — a  sort  of  modified  and  temporary  Nir- 
vana. Nevertheless,  Christians  do  believe  this  pro- 
mise, though  with  a  half-hearted  belief ;  and  the 
reason  of  their  faith  is  an  experience  which,  unhap- 
pily, is  only  a  half-hearted  experience.  The  Chris- 
tian religion  has  conquered,  or  at  least  is  conquering, 
sorrow.  Outside  of  Christendom  no  such  song  could 
be  written  or  sung  as  Franz  Abt's  apostrophe  to 
"  Tears."  The  contrast  between  Christianity  and 
the  best  form  of  paganism  in  this  respect  is  illus- 
trated by  the  contrast  between  the  closing  hours  of 
Socrates  and  of  Christ.  "  Whence,  O  Socrates," 
asks  Cebes,  "  can  we  procure  a  skilful  charmer  for 
our  fears  of  death,  now  that  you  are  about  to  leave 
us?"  "  Greece  is  wide,  Cebes,"  is  the  reply,  M  and  in 
it  surely  there  are  skilful  men  ;  and  there  are  many 
barbarous  nations,  all  of  which  you  should  search, 
seeking  such  a  charmer,  sparing  neither  money  nor 
toil." '  "  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled,"  said 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  ;  "  ye  believe  in  God  ;  believe  also 
in  me."  "  I  will  not  leave  you  comfortless,  I  will 
come  to  you."  "  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  my  peace 
I  give  unto  you  ;  not  as  the  world  giveth  give  I  unto 
you.  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled,  neither  let  it 
be  afraid." 

1  Last  words  of  Socrates  in  the  "  Phaedo." 


158  IN  AID   OF   FAITH. 

Through  all  subsequent  history  this  contrast  be- 
tween Christianity  and  the  highest  type  of  human 
philosophy,  unaided  by  revelation,  runs.  Scholars 
who  have  explored  the  burying-grounds  of  ancient 
Greece,  and  studied  the  inscriptions  buried  there,  tell 
us  that  there  is  not  one  to  be  found  bearing  a  word 
of  promise  or  of  hope.  The  tombstone  has  its  face 
turned  toward  the  past,  and  Memory  is  the  only  com- 
forter who  stands  by  the  mourner  at  the  grave.  "  He 
was  a  good  husband  ;  "  "  she  was  a  true  wife  ;  "  "  he 
lived  nobly  ;  "  "  he  died  heroically. "  Such  are  the  in- 
scriptions on  the  pagan  monuments.  Not  a  single  en- 
graved aspiration  or  expectation  is  to  be  found.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  walls  of  the  catacombs  of  Rome 
— darkest  and  most  dismal  burial-place  in  the  world 
— are  covered  all  over  with  words  of  promise  and  sym- 
bols of  hope.  But  I  need  not  go  back  to  the  death- 
bed of  Socrates  or  the  graveyard  of  Greece.  A  few 
years  ago  Colonel  Robert  Ingersoll,  the  eloquent 
apostle  of  atheistic  philosophy,  who  denounces 
the  Christian  religion  as  a  product  of  priest-craft  and 
an  instrument  of  oppression,  was  invited  to  bring  to 
a  sorrowing  family  at  an  open  grave  the  best  comfort 
his  philosophy  could  afford,  and  all  that  he  could 
say  was,  in  substance,  this :  "  Another  vessel  has 
been  launched  upon  the  boundless  and  unknown 
sea;  and  whether,  when  our  time  comes  to  launch 
upon  this  strange  voyage,  we  shall  meet  it  upon  the 
main  no  one  can  tell."  A  few  years  later  our  Chris- 
tian President  and  his  Christian  wife  were  called  on 


THE   SPIRITUAL  INHERITANCE.  1 59 

to  go  down  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death, 
while  the  people  of  two  nations  stood  awe-struck, 
looking  on  and  listening ;  and  from  the  dark  valley 
there  came  borne  upon  the  air  the  old,  old  song  of 
the  ancient  Hebrew  :  "  Yea,  though  I  walk  through 
the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  I  will  fear  no  evil  : 
for  thou  art  with  me  ;  thy  rod  and  thy  staff  they 
comfort  me."  Surely  we  in  America  have  reason  to 
believe  that  the  promise  of  God's  Word  that  he  will 
swallow  up  death  in  victory,  that  he  will  give  a  bless- 
ing to  those  that  mourn,  that  he  will  make  sorrow 
/adiant,  so  that  his  children  shall  no  longer  flee  from 
it  into  pleasure  or  into  death,  is  true. 

The  other  promise,  of  which  I  have  left  myself  too 
little  room  to  speak  at  length,  is  the  promise  of  Scrip- 
ture to  relieve  the  soul  of  the  burden  of  remorse.  I 
have  already  pointed  out  this  promise  as  a  character- 
istic of  the  Bible  in  the  chapter  on  the  "  Forgive- 
ness of  Sins ; "  and  I  have  already  indicated  it  as  an 
exclusive  characteristic  of  the  Bible,  in  the  contrast 
noted  between  the  explicit  promise  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  and  the  vague  and  indefinite  hope  of  the 
Hindu  Vedas.  I  do  not  think  I  can  better  illustrate 
both  these  points  than  by  telling  a  dramatic  story 
in  the  experience  of  a  distinguished  missionary,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Jacob  Chamberlain,  of  the  Reformed  Dutch 
Board  of  Missions  in  India. 

Dr.  Jacob  Chamberlain  some  years  since  started 
with  a  few  faithful  native  helpers  on  a  missionary 
tour  into  the  interior  of  India,  resolved  to  carry  the 


l6o  IN  AID   OF  FAITH. 

gospel  as  itinerants  to  the  towns  and  cities  where  no 
mission  stations  were  planted.  In  the  course  of  his 
journey  he  came  upon  a  walled  city,  and,  fatigued 
with  his  expedition,  sat  down  to  rest  outside  the 
city  walls,  while  his  helpers  went  in,  I  believe  to 
obtain  some  provisions.  They  presently  returned, 
saying  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to  enter 
the  city  and  preach  the  Gospel  there.  "Why  so?" 
asked  Dr.  Chamberlain.  "  Because,"  was  the  reply, 
"  the  news  of  our  coming  has  been  noised  abroad, 
and  the  Brahmins  have  aroused  a  mob  which  is  now 
gathering,  and  which  is  resolved  that  if  we  enter  the 
city  we  shall  not  leave  it  alive."  Dr.  Chamberlain's 
fatigue  disappeared  at  this  intelligence,  and,  rising, 
he  prepared  to  enter  the  city.  "  We  took,"  said  he 
to  his  helpers,  "  a  solemn  vow  upon  our  knees,  before 
we  started  upon  this  journey,  that  we  would  leave  no 
town  or  city  on  our  way  without  giving  the  Gospel 
message.  I  am  going  in  to  fulfil  my  vow ;  you  can 
follow  me  or  wait  outside  as  you  prefer."  They  fol- 
lowed him.  In  the  centre  of  the  city  was  the  great 
temple,  a  broad  avenue  leading  up  to  it  from  the  city 
gates.  As  Dr.  Chamberlain  and  his  companions 
walked  up  this  avenue  the  people  streamed  down 
the  side  streets  and  thronged  up,  surging  after  them. 
When  Dr.  Chamberlain  had  reached  the  temple  steps 
over  a  thousand  were  gathered  in  the  square  before 
him,  many  of  them  with  threatening  faces  and 
scowling  brows,  while  on  the  outskirts  he  could  see 
men  who  had  gathered  stones  and  were  urging  each 


THE   SPIRITUAL   INHERITANCE.  l6l 

other  on  to  begin  the  assault.  He  took  his  stand 
with  his  back  against  one  of  the  great  pillars  of  the 
temple,  that  he  might  not  be  assaulted  from  behind, 
and  then  spoke  with  a  loud,  clear  voice  so  that  all 
could  hear.  "  I  have  a  secret,"  he  said,  "  which  I 
have  come  to  tell  you.  I  see  that  you  want  to  kill 
me,  and  I  am  willing  to  die  ;  but  first  I  want  to 
leave  that  secret  here  behind  me.  I  want  to  select 
five  of  your  number  ;  I  will  leave  it  with  them  ;  then 
you  may  kill  me,  and  they  shall  decide  whether  they 
will  repeat  it  to  you  or  no."  The  native  Indian  is 
not  without  that  curiosity  which  has  been  regarded 
as  characteristic  of  the  Yankee.  The  mob  halted, 
and  hesitated  in  its  purpose,  and  Dr.  Chamberlain 
assumed  its  consent,  and  proceeded  to  execute  his 
plan.  Selecting  men  from  the  crowd  by  their  tur- 
bans, he  beckoned  them  to  him.  "You  with  the 
red  turban,  you  with  the  white,  you  with  the  green, 
you  with  the  blue,  you  with  the  black,  come  for- 
ward ;  the  rest  of  you  stand  back  !  stand  back  !  "  A 
crowd  does  not  readily  stand  back  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, and  though  a  little  space  was  left  where 
the  five  chosen  men  could  stand,  the  space  was  not 
large.  Then  in  a  low  voice,  not  readily  audible  ex- 
cept to  the  five,  Dr.  Chamberlain  began  the  story  of 
his  secret.  "  You  know,"  said  he,  "  the  song  you 
sing  in  your  temples ; "  and  then  he  chanted  to 
them,  to  the  music  which  they  had  often  heard  from 
their  own  priests,  the  priestly  cry  to  Vishnu  : 

"  O    Vishnu,    all    our   prayers,   and    all  our    fast- 


l62  IN  AID    OF   FAITH. 

ings,  and  all  our  services,  are  powerless  to  take 
away  from  us  the  burden  of  sin !  0  Vishnu  !  O 
Vishnu !  Who  shall  lift  off  from  us  this  burden  of 
sin?" 

And  the  people  heard  the  song  they  had  often 
heard  in  their  temple  service,  and  a  great  hush  fell 
over  them,  and  they  listened,  and  Dr.  Chamberlain 
raised  his  voice  a  little.  "  And  you  know,"  he  con- 
tinued, "  the  song  which  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges 
you  sing  ;  "  and  then  he  chanted  a  more  popular 
song  to  a  more  popular  melody,  a  sort  of  Moody 
and  Sankey  Brahminical  hymn  : 

"  O  Vishnu,  all  our  bathings  and  all  our  pilgrim- 
ages are  powerless  to  lift  off  from  us  the  burden  of 
sin  !  O  Vishnu !  O  Vishnu  !  How  shall  we  find 
relief  from  this  burden  of  sin  ?  " 

And  the  people  heard  the  song  they  sung  them- 
selves, and  drew  still  nearer,  and  Dr.  Chamberlain 
dropped  the  guise  of  secret  telling  and  raised  his 
voice  so  that  the  outermost  in  the  circle  could  hear 
him.  "  I  have  come,"  he  said,  "  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion your  priests  ask  in  vain  in  the  temple,  and 
you  ask  in  vain  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges ;  I 
have  come  to  tell  you  of  One  who  will  lift  off  from 
you  the  burden  of  sin."  And  he  told  them  the 
story  of  Christ  and  his  redeeming  love ;  and  before 
he  left  the  city  those  who  had  been  eager  to  kill  him 
had  bought  eighty  copies  of  Scriptures,  Gospels,  and 
tracts,  that  they  might  learn  more  about  this  won- 
derful "  Lifter  of  the  burden  of  sin." 


THE  SPIRITUAL  INHERITANCE.  1 63 

Now,  I  do  not  tell  this  story  for  the  purpose 
of  arousing  the  reader's  admiration  for  the  almost 
inspired  conduct  and  courage  of  the  missionary; 
though  I  think  it  well  that  we  should  know  the 
heroism  that  is  so  little  known,  and  the  genius  that 
is  so  little  honored,  in  our  missionary  fields.  I  tell 
the  story  for  the  purpose  of  making  clear  to  the 
reader  what  these  poor  pagans  readily  apprehended, 
but  what  the  modern  admirers  of  Universal  Religion 
seem  to  me  to  ignore — the  broad  distinction  between 
the  Christian  religion  and  the  highest  and  best  of  the 
pagan  religions.  Lydia  Maria  Child  has  written  a 
suggestive  little  book  entitled  "  The  Aspirations  of 
Humanity/'  in  which  she  undertakes  to  show  by 
quotations  from  the  religious  literature  of  all  nations 
and  epochs,  that  the  religious  aspirations  of  men  are 
everywhere  and  always  the  same.  This  is  measura- 
bly true.  Hunger  does  not  differ  in  different  races 
nor  in  different  epochs.  What  distinguishes  the 
Christian  religion  is  the  fact  that  it  satisfies  the 
hunger  to  which  other  religions  only  give  expression. 
The  prayers  of  Christianity  and  paganism  are  akin  ; 
but  nowhere  outside  of  Christendom  is  there  to  be 
found  a  religious  literature  which  abounds  in  expres- 
sions of  the  experience  of  peace  in  pardon,  and  rest 
in  communion  with  God.  Nowhere  outside  of 
Christian  literature  is  there  to  be  found  even  any  ex- 
plicit promise  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  and  filial 
oneness  with  the  Father.  The  only  approximation 
to  such  promise  is  an  occasional  expression  of  hope, 


1 64  IN  AID   OF  FAITH. 

born  out  of  the  very  travail  of  the  soul  in  its  burden 
of  sin  and  its  spiritual  loneliness. 

We  believe  in  this  promise  of  the  Gospel,  in  this 
succor  from  the  burden  of  past  sin,  of  regretful 
recollections  of  evil  done  and  opportunities  for  good 
neglected,  chiefly  because  we  have  some  experience 
and  still  larger  observation  of  their  fulfilment ;  be- 
cause we  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  through  whom  we  receive  the  recon- 
ciliation, and  so  are  able  to  interpret  that  experience 
of  peace  as  we  find  it  expressed  in  the  writings  or 
manifested  in  the  lives  of  others.  The  inheritance 
is  an  actual  and  realized  inheritance,  and  we  do  not 
therefore  need  to  go  back  and  investigate  the  original 
authentication  of  the  instrument  by  which  it  has 
been  bestowed  upon  us.  I  do  not  need  to  quote 
here  from  the  Christian  hymnology  expressions  of 
these  experiences,  for  they  will  occur  to  almost 
every  reader,  and  if  they  do  not  he  has  but  to  open 
any  church  hymn-book  and  find  them  there ;  but  I 
may,  perhaps,  without  danger  of  repeating  a  truism, 
call  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the  fact  that  this 
experience  of  relief  from  the  burden  of  the  past  is 
in  some  sense  characteristic,  not  merely  of  the  spir- 
itual children  of  God,  but  of  all  those  who  have  lived 
in  the  atmosphere  and  sunshine  of  Christianity. 
Why  is  it  that  India  and  China  are  stationary,  while 
Europe  and  America  are  progressive  ?  Why  is  it 
that  progress  is  confined  to  Christian  peoples,  while 
the  life  of  pagan  peoples  is  without  exception  un- 


THE  SPIRITUAL  INHERITANCE.  1 65 

changed  from  century  to  century?  I  think  the 
answer  to  this  question  will  be  found  in  the  differ- 
ent directions  which  their  respective  religions  give 
to  Christian  and  pagan  thought.  The  profoundest 
force  in  human  life  is  its  religious  force,  whether  for 
good  or  for  ill.  The  whole  religious  force  of  India 
is  directed  toward  the  past  ;  the  whole  effort  of  its 
priesthood  and  of  its  services  is  directed  toward  rid- 
ding the  soul  of  its  burden  of  past  errors  and  sins. 
It  would  probably  be  difficult  to  indicate  any  feature 
in  a  Hindu  service  having  for  its  professed  object 
the  preparation  of  the  worshipper  for  a  better  life 
in  the  future,  except  as  deliverance  from  the 
burden  of  past  sin  may  be  so  regarded.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  all  Protestant  Christendom,  we  have 
been  taught  from  our  childhood  to  believe  that  God 
takes  care  of  the  past ;  that  he  has  made  provision 
for  it ;  that  we  not  only  may,  but  must,  leave  it 
with  him  ;  that  we  need  not  concern  ourselves  with 
vain  attempts  to  correct  its  errors  or  atone  for  its 
wrongs ;  that  he  asks  nothing  of  us  respecting  the 
past  except  to  leave  it  with  him  ;  that  all  he  asks  of 
us  is  to  turn  our  thoughts  to  the  present  and  to  the 
future,  to  cease  to  do  evil,  and  to  learn  to  do  well. 
And  in  the  main,  though  certainly  not  as  effectively 
or  as  clearly  as  might  be,  the  Protestant  pulpit 
directs  the  thoughts  of  Protestant  congregations 
away  from  past  sins  and  away  from  future  fears 
toward  present  and  prospective  duties  and  obliga- 
tions.    Society,  relieved  by  religious  faith  from  the 


1 66  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

burden  of  the  past,  sets  its  face  toward  the  future, 
and  marches  forward,  catching  the  inspiration  of 
hope  and  the  impulse  to"  progress  from  the  promise 
of  the  Gospel,  even  though  it  knows  not  whence 
that  promise  and  that  inspiration  come. 

To  sum  up,  then,  the  results  of  this  and  the  two 
preceding  chapters  :  The  Bible  is  a  literature,  not  a 
book  ;  it  is  a  literature  of  divine  promise,  and  it  is 
this  promise  which  gives  to  it  both  its  sacredness 
and  its  unity.  To  believe  in  the  Bible  is  not  to  be- 
lieve in  any  particular  theory  of  the  authorship  of 
particular  books,  or  any  particular  theological  con- 
ception of  inspiration  ;  but  it  is  to  rely  upon  its 
promises,  and  to  take  possession  of  that  which  they 
offer  to  the  soul ;  and  while  Christians  might  easily 
and  often  do  find  other  evidences  for  their  faith  in 
the  Bible  as  the  Word — that  is,  the  promises — of 
God,  evidences  in  its  original  authentication  by  signs 
and  wonders,  in  the  intrinsic  excellence  of  its  moral 
and  spiritual  teachings,  in  the  character  of  the  lives 
therein  portrayed,  preeminently  of  the  life  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  in  a  comparison  of  it  with  other  con- 
temporaneous writings,  and  in  the  history  of  the 
effects  which  it  has  produced  in  the  world,  still 
their  chief  reason  for  faith  in  it  is  that  we  are  living 
in  the  age  of  the  fulfilment  of  its  promises,  and 
have  already  entered  into  the  inheritance  which 
it  offers  to  God's  children.  We  already  possess 
a  supremacy  over  nature,  peace,  productive  indus- 
try, and  good  government,  victory  over  sorrow  and 


THE   SPIRITUAL   INHERITANCE.  167 

death,   and   deliverance    from    the    burden    of   past 
sin. 

That  inheritance  of  divine  life  and  character  which 
constitutes  the  consummate  gift  of  Christendom  I 
must  leave  to  speak  of  in  a  closing  chapter.  But 
first  it  will  be  well  to  consider  two  doctrines  which 
are  a  stumbling-block  to  many  students  of  the  reli- 
gious problem — the  Resurrection  of  the  Body  and 
Eternal  Death. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

THE    RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD. 

I  HAVE  somewhere  seen  a  cartoon  of  the  resur- 
rection, which  doubtless  fairly  represented  the 
conception  of  that  event  entertained  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  Here  a  head  is  just  peeping  above  the  ground  ; 
here  a  fully  raised  body  is  stretching  itself  in  the  sun- 
light after  its  long  night ;  here  a  husband  is  helping 
his  wife  out  of  her  earthy  bed.  If  I  wanted  to  eradi- 
cate from  Christian  consciousness  the  unscientific  and 
unspiritual  faith  in  a  literal  bodily  resurrection,  I  would 
reproduce  this  picture  for  general  circulation.  For  un- 
spiritual faiths  need  generally  only  to  be  patterned  to 
the  eye  in  order  to  be  rejected  both  by  the  understand- 
ing and  the  emotions.  It  cannot  be  said  that  this  be- 
lief is  eliminated  from  Christian  belief  or  is  harmless 
in  Christian  life.  The  conception  of  many  a  mother 
at  the  grave  of  her  child  still  finds  its  expression  in  the 
beautiful  verse,  but  false  sentiment,  of  Henry  Kirke 
White : 

"This  ashes,  too,  this  little  dust, 
A  Father's  care  shall  keep, 
Till  the  last  trump  shall  sound  and  break 
The  long  and  dreary  sleep." 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.  169 

Within  the  present  decade  a  Presbyterian  clergy- 
man, whose  loyalty  to  Christ  as  a  Divine  Saviour  was 
not  called  in  question,  was  ejected  from  the  Presby- 
tery, and  one  count  in  the  indictment  against  him 
was  that  he  repudiated  this  pagan  dogma,  which 
materialism  has  grafted  on  the  spiritual  faith  incul- 
cated by  the  New  Testament.  The  Christian  friend 
who  said  to  me  a  few  years  ago,  half  seriously,  half  in 
jest,  "  If  we  substitute  cremation  for  burial,  what  be- 
comes of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  ?"  gave  ex- 
pression to  a  real,  though  not  often  avowed,  sentiment, 
one  which  is  the  secret  of  the  religious  antagonism  to 
that  method  of  disposing  of  the  tenantless  body.  We 
no  longer  embalm  our  dead,  in  a  vain  endeavor  to 
preserve  a  ghastly  caricature  of  our  beloved  against 
the  day  of  resurrection  ;  but  we  still  do  what  little 
we  can  to  thwart  the  kind  ministry  of  Nature,  which, 
if  we  would  let  her,  would  dissolve  this  earthly  into  its 
earthy  elements,  and  give  to  it  its  only  resurrection  in 
grass  and  fruit  and  waving  grain  and  fragrant  flowers. 
We  inclose  it  in  our  caskets,  double-box  it,  and  lay  it 
away  to  poison  the  earth  which  it  should  fructify,  and 
to  retain  a  ghastly  semblance  of  its  old  self  when  it 
should  be  converted  into  new  forms  of  use  and  beauty. 

A  few  years  ago  a  society  was  formed  in  England 
to  promote  basket-burial — the  laying  of  the  corpse  in 
an  open  wicker  basket,  protected  from  the  soil  only  by 
a  light  covering,  and  given  to  Mother  Earth  to  incor- 
porate into  herself  without  hindrance  and  delay,    But 


I70  IN  AID   OF   FAITH. 

I  do  not  think  it  made  much  headway  against  popular 
feeling.  Reason  had  nothing  to  say  against  it;  but 
fashion  and  sentiment,  though  dumb,  were  powerful, 
and  were  re-enforced  by  that  materialism  which  iden- 
tifies personality  with  flesh  and  blood,  and  conceives 
that  the  man  ceases  to  be  because  he  has  struck  his 
tent  and  moved  away.  Basket-burial  is  still  unknown 
in  the  United  States,  and  exceptional  in  Great  Britain. 
When  I  die,  may  no  iron  door  be  closed  against  kind- 
ly Nature's  endeavor — fulfilling  the  blessed  ministry 
with  which  her  God  and  mine  has  commissioned  her 
— to  turn  again  into  life  and  life-giving  elements  this 
perishing  body;  may  no  love  linger  on  the  grave; 
may  no  aching  hearts  be  buried  with  the  body  beneath 
the  clod  ;  may  no  false  imaginations  sorrow  as  with- 
out hope  over  "  the  long  and  dreary  sleep. "  May 
the  good  angel  be  seen  and  heard  that  ever  repeats 
from  every  open  grave,  "  He  is  not  here ;  why  seek 
ye  the  living  among  the  dead  ?"  May  the  entomb- 
ment be  a  willing  resignation  of  dust  to  dust,  and 
ashes  to  ashes,  while  the  soul  ascends  to  God  who 
gave  it. 

I  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  I  do  not 
believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body. 

In  the  outset,  let  me  say  that  my  faith,  both  in 
what  it  asserts  and  what  it  denies,  rests  wholly  upo?i 
Scripture.  I  have  no  faith  in  any  guesses  about  the 
future  nor  in  any  philosophical  conclusions,  expressed 
in  such  forms  as,  We  must  suppose,  or,  we  must   be- 


THE   RESURRECTION   OF   THE   DEAD.  171 

lieve ;  nor  in  any  mere  deductions  from  feelings  ex- 
pressed in  such  phrases  as,  I  cannot  bear  the  thought, 
etc.  All  that  we  know  or  can  know  about  the  resur- 
rection is  to  be  gathered  by  a  reverent  study  of 
Revelation.  What  such  a  study  will  not  teach  us  we 
must  be  content  to  leave  unknown.  There  is,  per- 
haps, no  objection  to  our  going  on  to  imagine; 
but  it  is  important  for  us  to  distinguish  between 
what  we  imagine  and  what  God  has  taught  us. 

I  have  said  that  I  do  not  believe  in  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body  ;  because  I  think  it  is  clearly,  expli- 
citly, and  vigorously  repudiated  by  the  Word  of  God. 
To  make  clear  what  I  mean  by  the  phrase  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body,  I  turn  to  some  of  the  creeds  of 
Christendom    and    express  my  dissent    from    them. 

I  find  in  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  the 
declaration  :  M  All  the  dead  shall  be  raised  up  with 
the  self-same  bodies  and  none  other,  although  with 
different  qualities,  which  shall  be  united  again  to 
their  souls  forever."  I  do  not  believe  that  they  will 
rise  with  the  self-same  bodies ;  on  the  contrary,  I 
believe  this  body  has  done  all  that  God  means  it  to 
do  when  its  earthly  career  has  ended,  and  that  God 
will  give  to  its  owner  a  new  body  as  it  pleaseth  him. 
I  find  in  the  Shorter  Catechism  the  declaration : 
"  Their  bodies  being  still  united  to  Christ,  do  rest  in 
their  graves  till  the  resurrection."  I  do  not  believe 
that  they  rest  in  their  graves  till  the  resurrection; 
I  believe  that  those  bodies  pass  into  grass  and  trees 


1/2  IN  AID   OF   FAITH. 

and  flowers,  into  new  forms  of  terrestrial  use  and 
beauty,  and  that  every  attempt  to  keep  them  in 
their  graves,  whether  by  the  ancient  embalming  or  the 
modern  casket,  is  fighting  against  Nature  and  against 
Nature's  God.  I  find  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  the 
declaration  concerning  Christ :  "  Christ  did  truly  rise 
again  from  death,  and  took  again  his  body,  flesh, 
bones,  and  all  things  appertaining  to  the  perfection 
of  man's  nature  :  wherewith  he  ascended  into  heav- 
en." I  believe  that  Christ  did  truly  rise  from 
death ;  but  I  do  not  believe  that  he  took  his  body, 
flesh  and  bones,  into  heaven.  I  believe  that  before 
the  ascension  his  material  body  underwent  the 
change  which  Paul  foretells  for  those  who  are  living 
at  the  coming  of  Christ ;  I  believe  that  Christ  is  a 
Spirit,  and  I  believe  his  own  declaration  to  his  disci- 
ples after  his  resurrection  :  "  A  spirit  hath  not  flesh 
and  bones  as  ye  see  me  have."  I  believe  flesh  and 
blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.  I  believe 
it  is  no  part  of  the  perfection  of  man's  nature,  but  his 
temporary  instrument,  admirably  adapted  to  his  state 
of  pilgrimage,  utterly  unadapted  to  his  eternal  home. 
And  I  believe  this,  as  I  have  said,  on  what  seems  to 
me  to  be  the  clear  teaching  of  God's  Holy  Word. 

The  belief  that  "  the  bodies  do  rest  in  their 
graves  till  the  resurrection,"  is  contradicted  by  our 
daily  observation ;  we  see  them  exhumed  from  their 
graves  by  the  irresistible  and  blessed  power  of  Na- 
ture :  we  see  them  absorbed  and    transformed  into 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.  1 73 

new  forms  of  beauty  and  of  life ;  we  see  them  wafted 
on  the  wings  of  the  wind  as  dust.  Gathered  together 
again  for  resurrection  they  may  be,  by  some  fiat  of 
the  Almighty  ;  rest  in  their  graves  till  the  resurrec* 
tion  they  evidently  do  not.  This  is  not,  however, 
the  gravamen  of  my  charge  against  this  doctrine.  If 
it  were  simply  an  impossible  imagination,  I  would  let 
it  rest  undisturbed  by  voice  or  pen  of  mine.  But  the 
doctrine  that  Christ  ascended  into  heaven  with  flesh 
and  bones,  the  doctrine  that  the  dead  rise  at  the  last 
day  with  the  "  self-same  bodies  and  none  other,"  I 
believe  to  be  a  graft  of  paganism  budded  with  many 
another  pagan  notion  on  Christian  theology.  Its  seeds 
are  to  be  found  in  the  tombs  of  Egypt,  not  in  the 
grave  of  Christ ;  it  is  a  prolific  source  of  false  doctrine 
and  cruel  comfort ;  it  carries  with  it  the  notion  of  a 
physical  heaven  and  a  physical  hell;  it  has  given  rise 
to  a  doctrine  of  purgatory  and  all  the  priestly  machi- 
nery that  accompanies  it ;  it  buries  the  heart  of  the 
afflicted  in  the  grave  ;  it  postpones  hope  to  a  remote 
and  indefinite  future  ;  it  habituates  us,  in  the  hours 
when  we  stand  consciously  nearest  eternity,  not  to 
look  with  Paul  upon  the  things  that  are  unseen  and 
eternal,  but  with  the  pagan  upon  the  things  that  are 
seen  and  temporal.  It  is  irrational,  it  is  unscriptural, 
it  is  unspiritual. 

If  this  doctrine  is  a  Scriptural  doctrine  it  ought  to 
be  expressed  in  clear,  explicit  terms.  It  is  not.  The 
phrase  "  resurrection  of  the  body  "  does  not  occur  in 


174  IN   AID    OF   FAITH. 

Scripture.     The  dogma  is  not  so  much  as  named.     It 
rests,  so  far  as  it  rests  on  specific  texts  of  Scripture  at 
all,  on  such  passages  as  Job's  exclamation,  "  Yet  in  my 
flesh  shall  I  see  God,"  which  the  Hebrew  scholars  tell 
us  should  be  rendered,   "  Though  my  skin  (last  rem- 
nant of  the  body)  is  destroyed,  yet  without  my  flesh 
shall  I  see  God  ;"  or  on  Scripture  accounts  of  miracu- 
lous resurrections,  as  of  Lazarus  or  the  saints  at  the 
death  of  Christ,  of  whose  ascension  into  the  heavens 
with  their  material  bodies  there  is  not  a  hint  in  the 
Scripture  narrative  ;  or  on  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
who  distinctly  declares  that  he  is  not  clothed  upon 
with  his  spiritual  body,  but  has  flesh  and  bones  which 
the  spirits  have  not ;    or  upon   imaginary  texts   of 
Scripture,  which  have  no  existence,  such  as  "  The 
graves  shall  be  opened  ;"  !  or  upon  texts  of  Scripture 
whose  implication  is  the  very  reverse  of  the  doctrine 
of  a  material  resurrection  and  a   material  body,   as 
Christ's  colloquy  with  the  Sadducees,  in  which  he  tells 
them  that  the  God  of  Abraham  and  of  Isaac  and  of 
Jacob  is  the  God  not  of  the  dead  but  of  the  living, 
and  that  the  children  of  the  resurrection  neither  marry 
nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels;  or 
it  is  based  on  long-drawn  deductions  from  pictorial 

1  The  only  text  which  gives  any  color  to  this  common,  bald,  erroneous 
citation  is  Ezekiel  xxxvii.  12  :  "I  will  open  your  graves,"  words  uttered 
by  Ezekiel  in  a  vision  to  the  valley  of  dry  bones,  and  having  no  reference 
whatever  to  the  Last  Day,  or  General  Judgment,  or  General  Resur- 
rection. 


THE   RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.  1 75 

and  parabolic  teachings  of  Scripture,  enforcing  the 
resurrection  not  of  the  body  but  of  the  dead. 

While  the  Scriptural  grounds  for  the  belief  that  the 
body  rests  in  the  grave  until  the  resurrection,  and  that 
then  "the  self-same  body  and  no  other"  rises  from 
the  grave,  are  so  singularly  inapposite,  the  teaching 
of  the  one  passage  of  Scripture  which  bears  directly 
upon  this  subject  is  clear,  definite,  and  explicit 
in  condemnation  of  it.  In  the  fifteenth  chapter  of 
First  Corinthians,  Paul  labors  with  reiterated  antithesis 
to  clear  the  Church  of  Christ  of  this  relic  of  pagan 
materialism.  The  body  you  sow  in  the  grave  is  not 
the  body  that  shall  be.  God  will  furnish  a  body  as  it 
pleaseth  him.  The  celestial  body  is  different  from 
the  terrestrial  body.  The  natural  body  is  different 
from  the  spiritual  body.  One  is  corruptible,  the  other 
incorruptible;  one  is  mortal,  the  other  immortal. 
Flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Corruption  cannot  inherit  incorruption.  Even  the 
living  at  the  last  great  day  must  be  changed  ;  must 
drop  the  corruptible  for  the  incorruptible ;  must  drop 
the  mortal  for  the  immortal.  Let  any  of  my  read- 
ers do  his  best  to  express  repudiation  of  the  doctrine 
that  "the  self-same  body"  will  rise,  and  then  com- 
pare his  repudiation  with  Paul's,  and  I  venture  to  say 
that  he  will  not  have  done  it  with  half  the  vigor  and 
power  of  the  Apostle.  When  I  think  what  he  has 
written  on  this  subject,  I  am  almost  ashamed  to  let  my 
feebler  words  be  printed. 


I76  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

What,  then,  does  Paul  mean  by  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead,  or  the  resurrection  from  the  dead — for  this 
is  apparently  the  more  favorite  form  of  expression  ? 
It  is  resurrection  from  the  dead  which  they  that  are 
accounted  worthy  obtain  ;  it  is  resurrection  from  the 
dead  which  constitutes  the  theme  of  the  early  Apos- 
tolic preaching ;  it  is  resurrection  from  the  dead  to 
attain  which  Paul  follows  after  Christ  so  earnestly.1  I 
disbelieve  in  the  resurrection  of  the  "self- same  body ;" 
I  believe  with  all  my  heart  in  the  resurrection  from 
the  dead.  What  do  I  mean?  What  did  Paul 
mean  ? 

The  ancients  believed  that  the  dead  went  down  in- 
to a  dark  under- world,  an  abode  of  departed  spirits, 
a  shadowy  prison-house,  a  Sheol,  a  Hades,  a  Place 
of  the  Dead.  Homer  makes  the  dead  Achilles  de- 
clare : 

"I  would  be 
A  laborer  on  earth  and  serve  for  hire 
Some  man  of  mean  estate,  who  makes  scant  cheer, 
Rather  than  reign  over  all  who  have  gone  down  to  death." 

In  reflecting  upon  this  dark  abode,  even  the  faith  and 
hope  of  the  most  pious  Hebrew  was  dimmed  and  dark- 
ened. "  Wilt  thou  show  wonders  to  the  dead  ?"  he 
cried.  "  Shall  the  dead  arise  and  praise  thee?  Shall 
thy  righteousness  be  known  in  the  land  of  forgetful- 
ness  ?"     For  a  picture  of  this  Land  of  the  Dead,  read 

1  aradradiS  in  vexpaoor.  Luke  xx.  35  ;  Acts  iv.  2  ;  Phil.  in. 
10. 

II 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.  177 

the  ode  in  Isaiah  on  the  descent  of  the  King  of  Baby- 
lon into  Sheol : 

"  Sheol  beneath  is  in  commotion  for  thee, 
To  meet  thine  entrance  : 

It  nurseth  for  thee  the  deceased,  all  the  leaders  of  the  earth  : 
It  causeth  to  rise  from  their  thrones  all  the  kings  of  the  nations. 
They  all  commence  and  say  to  thee  : 
Art  thou,  too,  become  weak  as  we  are  ? 
Art  thou  become  like  unto  us  ? 
Thy  pomp  is  brought  down  to  Sheol, 
And  the  sounding  of  thy  harps  : 
Under  thee  is  spread  putridity, 
And  the  worms  are  thy  covering. 
How  thou  art  fallen  from  heaven, 
Illustrious  Son  of  the  Morning  ! 
How  thou  art  felled  to  the  ground, 
That  didst  discomfit  the  nations  !"  l 

Such  was  the  almost  universal  conception  of  death 
and  the  Abode  of  the  Dead  at  the  time  when  the  New 
Testament  was  written  :  Death  an  enemy  ;  the  Abode 
of  the  Dead  a  prison-house,  a  dark  and  shadowy 
Underworld,  in  which  Death  holds  his  prisoners  in 
captivity.  To  such  a  faith  the  New  Testament  speaks 
its  words  of  hope.  It  declares  that  Christ  has  con- 
quered Death.  It  never  speaks  of  resurrection  from 
the  grave,  but  it  promises  a  resurrection  from  the 
dead,  a  deliverance  from  Hades,  a  ransom  from  the 
Underworld.  It  never  suggests  that  the  graves  shall 
be  opened  or  the  bodies  which  have  crumbled  there 
to  dust  shall  be  raised  therefrom  ;  it  declares  that 
Sheol  shall  be  opened  and  deliver  up  its  captives. 

1  Isaiah  xiv.  9,  12.     Henderson's  Translation. 
12 


I78  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

"  The  sea  gave  up  the  dead  that  were  in  it ;  and  death 
and  Hades  delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in  them  ; 
and  they  were  judged  every  man  according  to  their 
works."  This  picture  in  Revelation  interprets  the 
New  Testament  declarations  of  the  resurrection  from 
the  dead.  Christ  has  led  captivity  captive.  He  has 
broken  open  the  doors  of  this  dark  Underworld  and 
led  its  prisoners  forth.  Against  his  church  the  gates 
of  this  prison-house  of  death  shall  not  prevail ;  for 
his  redeemed  shall  rise  from  the  Place  of  Death,  whose 
gates  He,  like  a  spiritual  Samson,  will  have  lifted  from 
their  place,  not  merely  to  escape  himself  but  to  give 
deliverance  to  redeemed  humanity.1 

This  procession  of  the  redeemed  he  leads  forth  in 
magnificent  array,  in  cohorts,  each  in  his  own  rank 
and  order,  coming  forth  at  his  shout  of  command,  at 
the  sound  of  his  trumpet,  at  his  appearing,  at  the 
Last  Day.  How  far  we  are  justified  in  giving  a  lite- 
ral interpretation  of  the  pictorial  and  parabolic  lan- 
guage in  which  are  described  this  resurrection  of  the 
dead  from  the  Underworld,  and  the  awful  and  solemn 
scenes  which  accompany  it,  I  do  not  pretend  to  judge. 
The  pictorial  significance  must  have  been  clearer  to 
the  ancients  than  it  is  to  us.     The  last  trump  suggest- 

1  There  is  but  one  verse  in  the  Bible  which  even  suggests  a  future 
coming  forth  from  the  grave,  namely,  John  v.  29  ;  and  the  inter- 
pretation of  this  verse,  taken  with  the  one  immediately  preceding, 
"The  hour  is  coming,  and  now  is,  when  the  dead  shall  hear,"  is 
confessedly  not  clear  :  on  the  other  hand,  Paul,  in  1  Cor.  xv.  21,  22, 
evidently  treats  the  "resurrection  of  the  dead"  and  the  being 
' '  made  alive  "  as  synonymous  terms. 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.  1 79 

ed  to  the  devout  Jew  what  it  fails  to  suggest  to  us  ; 
for  it  was  at  the  sound  of  the  silver  trumpets  that  the 
Great  Congregation  broke  up  its  camp,  or  gathered 
to  hear  the  instructions  ot  Moses,  or  to  receive  the 
law  of  God.  The  last  trump  to  the  Jew  was  as  the 
last  ringing  of  the  school-bell  to  a  modern  pupil,  or 
the  last  roll  call  of  the  drum  to  a  modern  soldier.  It 
signified  the  end  of  the  school ;  the  close  of  the  pil- 
grimage ;  the  completion  of  the  campaign.  But 
whether  that  trumpet  has  already  sounded,  and  the 
Day  of  Great  Assize  has  already  begun,  and  the  dead 
go  up  from  their  death-bed  to  stand  before  their  Judge; 
or  whether  it  is  yet  to  sound  out  to  all  the  human 
race,  and  from  some  resting-place — but  not  the  grave 
— the  dead  are  to  come  forth,  the  children  of  Christ  to 
share  his  throne  with  him,  they  who  have  never 
known  him  to  be  judged  by  him — I  do  not  attempt 
here  even  to  consider.  Whatever  significance  may  be 
given  to  the  magnificent  imagery  in  which  these 
awful  realities  are  shadowed  forth  to  us,  there  is 
nothing  in  them  to  indicate  either  that  the  body 
"  rests  in  the  grave,"  or  that  "  the  self-same  body  " 
rises  out  of  it  again. 

But  for  myself,  I  do  not  believe  that  for  the  chil- 
dren of  God  there  is  any  dark  Underworld,  any  Place 
of  the  Dead,  any  Hades,  any  Intermediate  State.  I 
read  in  the  language  of  the  New  Testament,  not  an 
indorsement  of  this  belief,  but  a  correction  of  it.  I 
believe  that  he  who  has  found  Christ  has  found  eter- 


l8o  IN  AID  OF  FAITH. 

nal  life  ;  that  he  has  passed  from  death  unto  life ;  that 
he  will  not  come  into  judgment ;  that  when  he  de- 
parts, it  is  to  be  with  Christ ;  that  when  Christ  comes, 
he  will  come  with  him  in  glory  ;  that  when  Christ 
judges  the  world,  he  will  sit  with  him  on  his  judg- 
ment throne ;  that  he  who  liveth  and  believeth  in 
Christ  can  never  die ;  death  hath  no  dominion  over 
him.  Martha  still  weeps  at  the  grave  of  her  dead 
brother,  vainly  attempting  to  assuage  her  grief  by 
the  remote  hope  that  "  he  shall  rise  again  in  the  res- 
urrection at  the  Last  Day  ;  "  Christ  still  stands  beside 
her,  unrecognized  through  her  tears,  and  says  to  her : 
"  I  am  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life  ;  he  that  liveth 
and  believeth  in  me  shall  never  die." 

But  if  there  be  no  resurrection  of  the  body,  how 
shall  I  recognize  those  whom  I  have  known  on 
earth  ?  Identity  is  no.t  physical,  nor  is  recognition 
dependent  on  the  body.  The  man  is  identical  with 
the  child  ;  but  the  man's  body  is  not  identical  with 
the  child's  body.  Identity  lies  in  the  spirit,  not  in 
the  body.  The  body  which  is  seen  is  temporal ;  the 
spirit  which  is  unseen  is  eternal.  And  recognition, 
though  often  through  the  body,  is  by  the  spirit. 
Did  not  Christ  recognize  Moses  and  Elijah  in  the 
Mount  ?  Yes  ;  but  how  ?  It  was  by  spiritual,  not 
by  sensuous,  cognition,  he  could  alone  have  recog- 
nized them  ;  that  spiritual  cognition  of  which,  even 
in  our  dull,  fleshy  lives,  we  get  now  and  then  some 
glimpses  in    a  recognition,   despite  the  mask  which 


THE  RESURRECTION   OF  THE  DEAD.  l8l 

age  or  sickness  has  put  upon  a  friend  long  separated 
from  us. 

That  we  are  to  be  not  unclothed,  but  clothed 
upon ;  that  we  are  to  have  a  glorious  body,  a  spirit- 
ual body,  a  celestial  body,  a  body  redeemed  from 
all  suffering  and  sensuous  temptation  and  fleshly  sin, 
from  all  that  belongs  to  flesh  and  blood,  seems  to  me 
to  be  at  once  the  clear  revelation  of  Scripture  and  the 
reasonable  expectation  of  every  child  of  God ;  for 
has  not  our  Father  taught  us,  by  the  wonderful  pro- 
visions which  he  has  made  for  our  pilgrimage,  to  ex- 
pect still  greater  things  in  our  Home  ?  That  this 
incorruptible  body  may  have  some  now  uncompre- 
hended  and  incomprehensible  relation  to  the  physical, 
earthy,  sensuous,  decaying  tabernacle  of  our  pilgrim- 
age, I  see  neither  reason  to  affirm  nor  to  deny. 
Whether  God  gives  us  a  new  garment  in  place  of  an 
old  one  cast  aside,  or  whether  he  evolves  it  out  of 
the  cast-off  garment,  as  the  pure  white  paper  is 
evolved  from  the  unkempt  rags,  or  the  radiant  flower 
from  the  decaying  seed,  I  do  not  know,  and  I  am 
not  curious  to  know.  If  any  one  likes  to  think  the 
latter,  and  to  find  in  Paul's  figure  of  the  seed  some 
ground  for  this  opinion,  and  in  this  opinion  some 
justification  for  repeating  the  traditional  utterance  of 
the  creed,  "  I  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the 
body,"  I  have  no  dispute  with  him.  But  for  myself, 
whenever  I  join  with  my  brethren  in  repeating  that 
sublime  symbol  of  the  faith  of  the   Holy  Catholic 


1 82  IN  AID   OF  FAITH. 

Church,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  I  always  substitute  for 
the  unscriptural  phrase,  "The  resurrection  of  the 
body,"  this  other,  the  warrant  for  which  both  Christ 
and  Paul  furnish  to  the  believer : 

"  I  BELIEVE  IN  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD." 


CHAPTER    XVI. 
ETERNAL    DEATH. 

THE  problem  of  the  future  is  approached  by  men 
of  every  school,  who  are  sure  what  God  will  do, 
who  even  assert  with  assurance  what  he  must  do.  To 
me  it  is  shrouded  in  mystery  ;  I  approach  it  with 
awe  ;  I  cannot  assert  what  God  will  do,  still  less  what 
he  ought  to  do  ;  I  understand  too  little  this  awful  mys- 
tery of  sin.  What  it  is,  what  its  nature,  whence  its  origin, 
what  is  the  ever-shifting  line  which  separates  between 
crime  and  disease,  what  almighty  love  can  do  for  the 
deliberately,  persistently  wicked,  what  all-wise  justice 
must  do  for  the  protection  of  the  innocent,  what  pos- 
sibilities of  redemption  there  are  in  any  human  soul, 
what  reserves  of  mercy  in  God's  omnipotent  love, 
what  awful  power  there  is  in  the  human  soul  to  re- 
ject all  love,  even  the  love  of  the  Almighty,  what 
limits  there  are  to  the  power  of  love,  even  the  omni- 
potent love  of  God — all  this  I  know  not,  and  not 
knowing  I  cannot  dogmatize  ;  I  cannot  be  sure.  I 
look  out  into  the  great  unknown  future  with  beating 
heart  in  silence,  and  I  fear,  and  hope,  and  wonder. 
Many  Christians  regard  the  Bible  as  a  clear  and 


1 84  IN   AID   OF   FAITH. 

comprehensive  revelation  concerning  God  and  divine 
government,  which  contains  the  whole  truth  concern- 
ing him  and  his  purposes,  so  that,  humbly  studied  and 
heartily  believed,  it  will  furnish  a  complete  science  of 
God  and  divine  things.  I  do  not  so  understand  the 
Bible.  It  appears  to  me  to  be  simply  a  book  of 
practical  directions  for  godly  living  in  this  present 
life.  It  tells  enough  about  God  to  draw  out  the 
heart  in  love  toward  him,  enough  about  his  will  to 
enable  us  to  show  our  love  by  our  obedience, 
enough  about  the  future  to  furnish  motives  of  hope 
and  fear  to  re-enforce  the  larger  motive  of  love.  We 
sail  upon  an  ocean  whose  further  bounds  are  far  be- 
yond our  sight.  The  Bible  gives  every  soul  a  course 
to  sail  by.  Follow  this  course,  it  says,  and  you  will 
reach  the  harbor;  follow  any  other,  and  you  will  come 
to  shipwreck.  But  what  that  harbor  is,  and  what 
possibilities  of  rescue  at  the  last  from  shipwreck  there 
may  be,  it  tells  not.  The  wise  father  neither  prom- 
ises nor  threatens ;  he  leaves  his  children  to  under- 
stand that  obedience  brings  happiness,  disobedience 
suffering.  God  governs  his  children  as  a  wise  father  ; 
and  to  all  our  questionings — What  pay  for  doing 
right  ?  What  penalty  for  doing  wrong  ? — keeps  a 
silence  that  is  more  eloquent  than  speech.  The 
Bible  contains  no  clear  revelation  respecting  the  na- 
ture of  either  eternal  life  or  eternal  death.  It  discloses 
nothing  to  curiosity.  We  gather  from  its  intimations 
some  probable  conclusions  ;  but  every  kind  of  dogma- 


ETERNAL  DEATH.  I 85 

tism  respecting  the  eternal  future  is  un-scriptural. 
Not  till  the  church  furnishes  a  prophet  who  can  fore- 
tell the  rewards  of  virtue  or  the  penalties  of  sin 
which  God  will  award  to  a  single  individual  next 
year,  shall  I  accept  the  fo retellings  of  its  would-be 
prophets  concerning  the  rewards  and  penalties  which 
he  will  award  at  the  farther  end  of  eternity. 

The  Scriptures,  especially  the  New  Testament,  do, 
however,  contain  intimations  addressed  to  both  fear 
and  hope  :  the  one  seem  to  me  to  awaken  well-ground- 
ed fear  of  a  hopeless  doom,  the  other  well-grounded 
hope  of  a  perfected  redemption. 

It  is  impossible,  within  the  compass  of  a  brief  chap- 
ter in  such  a  book  as  this,  to  group  the  words  of  Christ 
and  his  Apostles  which  foreshadow  the  awful  fact 
that  sin  is  sometimes  incorrigible ;  that  it  is  within  the 
power  of  the  human  will  to  set  at  defiance  the  divine 
love  ;  that  a  human  will,  set  to  do  evil,  can  resist  all 
the  gracious  influences  of  a  divine  will  seeking  to  save 
the  soul  from  its  own  undoing.  If  I  were  a  John- 
Calvin  Calvinist,  I  should  be  a  Universalist.  If  I  be- 
lieved that  it  is  in  the  power  of  God  to  coerce  a  virtu- 
ous choice  from  a  free  moral  agent,  I  should  be  sure 
that  he  would.  A  study  of  life  and  a  study  of  Scrip- 
ture both  forbid.  God  influences,  but  does  not  com- 
pel; he  entreats,  but  does  not  coerce;  he  knocks  at 
the  heart,  but  will  not  break  in ;  he  will  have  child- 
ren, not  slaves ;  love,  not  obedience.  And  love  is 
not  compelled  and  cannot  be.      If  he  is  a  Father,  he 


1 86  IN  AID   OF   FAITH. 

will  receive  every  child  that  love  can  draw  and  sor- 
row can  drive  to  him  :  but  he  will  not  go  after  the 
fugitive  with  bloodhounds  and  bring  him  back  in 
chains.  This  seems  to  me  the  teaching  of  the  New 
Testament,  especially  the  teaching  of  Christ  himself. 
He  is  not  a  Master,  come  to  capture  by  force  men 
who  have  no  choice ;  he  is  a  Friend,  come  to  capture 
by  persuasion  men  who  have  a  fatal  power  to  resist, 
and  whose  resistance  is  soul-suicide,  eternal  death. 
This  terrible  fact — man's  power  of  resistance  to  all 
grawous  influences — underlies  all  Christ's  life  and 
teachings,  his  arguments,  entreaties,  persuasions ;  his 
incarnation,  his  tears,  his  nights  of  prayer,  his 
Gethsemane  agony,  his  breaking  heart,  his  tragic 
death,  his  descent  into  Hades  in  merciful  quest 
of  the  lost,  his  resurrection,  his  perpetual  inter- 
cession, his  ever-living  presence  with  his  church. 
All  this  would  be  meaningless  unless  man  is  in  a  true 
sense  the  arbiter  of  his  own  destiny,  and  God  is  plead- 
ing before  him  to  enter  into  life  eternal.  The  terri- 
ble possibility  of  a  hopeless  fate  gives  pathos  to  the 
sorrowful  tones  of  the  Pleader's  voice.  It  appears  in 
his  explicit  declaration  that  the  wicked  go  away  into 
eternal  punishment ;  that  they  are  left  at  last  in  the 
outer  darkness ;  that  they  are  cast  into  the  fire  of 
Gehenna  ;  that  they  lose  their  own  soul ;  that  they 
may  sin  a  sin  which  shall  not  be  forgiven,  neither  in 
this  world  nor  in  the  world  to  come.  It  re-appears 
in  reiterated  type  and  metaphor.     They  are  guests 


ETERNAL   DEATH.  1 87 

arriving  too  late  for  the  marriage  feast  and  are  shut  out 
and  the  feast  goes  on  without  them  ;  they  are  chaff 
to  be  burned  with  fire,  useless  fish  to  be  cast  away, 
fruitless  trees  to  be  hewn  down  and  burned  to  ashes, 
bankrupts  consigned  to  perpetual  imprisonment,  reb- 
els slain  before  the  throne  of  their  king.  So  terrible 
is  this  death- doom  that  any  maiming,  though  it  were 
as  the  cutting  off  of  the  right  hand  and  the  plucking 
out  of  the  right  eye,  is  to  be  preferred.  If  I  turn  to 
the  Epistles,  their  language  seems  to  me  scarcely  less 
explicit ;  the  wicked  are  without  God,  and  therefore 
without  hope :  their  sentence  is  death,  their  end  de- 
struction, their  punishment  everlasting  destruction 
from  the  presence  of  the  Lord.  I  am  not  unaware  of 
the  interpretations  which  Universalist  scholars  give 
to  these  and  kindred  words  of  awful  warning.  I 
could  perhaps  accept  explanations  of  isolated  verses. 
But  I  trust  my  readers  will  not  understand  me  as 
impugning  the  honesty  of  other  Biblical  students  when 
I  say  that  I  could  not  with  honesty  accept  the  author- 
ity of  Christ's  teaching  for  myself  and  still  preach  an 
"  eternal  hope."  The  possibility  of  incorrigible  sin, 
the  hopeless  doom  of  the  incorrigible  sinner,  appear 
to  me  to  be  as  clearly  taught  by  Christ  as  words  can 
teach  them. 

But  if  the  New  Testament  warnings  may  well  awaken 
fear  in  every  sinner  lest  his  sin  become  incorrigible, 
its  prophecies  give  to  every  Christian  good  ground  of 
hope  in  a  final,  perfect  redemption.     They  foretell  a 


188  IN  AID   OF  FAITH. 

kingdom  of  Christ  to  which  all  the  kingdoms  of  this 
earth  shall  belong ;  an  hour  when  every  knee  shall 
bow  and  every  tongue  shall  confess  Jesus  Christ  to  be 
Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father ;  a  reconciliation 
of  all  things  unto  the  Redeemer,  whether  upon  the 
earth  or  in  the  heavens ;  a  millennial  glory,  in  which 
his  kingdom  will  come  and  his  will  be  done  on  earth 
as  in  heaven  ;  a  new  song  unto  him  that  sitteth  upon 
the  throne  and  unto  the  Lamb  forever,  sung  by  every 
creature  which  is  in  heaven,  and  on  the  earth,  and 
under  the  earth,  and  such  as  are  in  the  sea,  and  all 
that  are  in  them.     In  the  New  Testament  picture  of 
this  hour  of  triumph  there  is  no  shadow  of  scowling 
faces,  of  angered  and  unrepentent  rebels ;  in  the  New 
Testament  echo  of  this  song  of  the  redeemed  there  is 
no    interrupting  of  wail  or  wrath    from  any  far-off 
prison-house  of  despair.     After  the  last  enemy  is  de- 
stroyed, shall  sin,  worst  of  all  enemies,  still  live  and 
work  his  ruin    eternally?      When  God  hath  put  all 
enemies  under  Christ's  feet,  shall  this  worst  of  all  ene- 
mies still  rule  in  triumph  over  some  remote,  reserved 
corner  of  creation  ?  I  cannot,  will  not,  dogmatize  ;  but 
I  can  and  do  believe  that  God  is  always  better  than 
his  promises,  and  that  these  promises  of  the  perfect 
accord  of  all  God's  creatures  in  him  and  with  him, 
mean  not  less  but  more  than  they  seem  to  us  to  mean. 
I  cannot,  will  not,  dogmatize ;  but  I  can  hope.     The 
more  I  study  the  Bible  the  more  un-Scriptural  seems 
to  me  the  conception  of  endless  sin  ;  the  nearer  I  come 


ETERNAL  DEATH.  1 89 

into  fellowship  with  God  my  Father,  my  Saviour,  my 
Comforter,  the  more  intolerable  grows  the  thought  of 
it  to  me.  And  I  thank  God  for  the  good  hope  in 
his  Word  which  permits  me  to  look  forward  to  and 
haste  toward  the  day  when  this  terrible  tragedy  of 
sin  and  pain  will  come  to  an  everlasting  end. 

If  one  believes  in  the  hopeless  doom  of  incorrigible 
sin,  and  also  in  the  undimmed  glory  of  a  perfected  king- 
dom of  love,  he  must  believe  in  the  annihilation  of 
the  incorrigibly  wicked.  Yes ;  that  would  be  the 
logical  conclusion.  If  logic  were  a  glass  which  reveals 
the  secrets  of  eternity,  this  would  seem  the  final  doom 
of  unrepented  sin.  As  it  is,  I  can  only  characterize 
this  as  a  probable  doctrine,  more  probable  by  far  than 
the  doctrine  of  endless  sin  and  suffering.  There  are 
phrases  in  Christ's  teaching  which  give  some  color  to 
that  terrible  dogma ;  but  more  often  those  quoted  in 
support  of  it  are  misquoted  or  misinterpreted.  Fire  is 
generally,  in  the  Bible,  an  emblem  of  destruction,  not 
of  torment.  The  chaff,  the  tares,  the  fruitless  tree, 
are  thrown  into  unquenchable  fire,  not  to  be  tortured 
but  to  be  destroyed.  The  hell  fire  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  the  fire  of  Gehenna,  kept  burning  outside  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem  to  destroy  the  offal  of  the  city: 
here  was  the  worm  that  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  that  is 
not  quenched;  emblems  of  destruction,  not  of  tor- 
ment. Except  two,  or  at  most  three,  passages  in  the 
Gospels,  and  a  few  enigmatical  symbols  in  that  most 
enigmatical  book,  the  Revelation  of  St.  John,  there  is 


190  IN  AID   OF  FAITH. 

nothing  in  the  New  Testament  to  warrant  the  terrible 
opinion  that  God  sustains  the  life  of  his  creatures 
throughout  eternity  only  that  they  may  continue  in 
sin  and  misery.  That  immortality  is  the  gift  of  God 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  that  man  is  mortal 
and  must  put  on  immortality  ;  that  only  he  can  put  it 
on  who  becomes  through  Christ  a  partaker  of  the 
divine  nature,  and  so  an  inheritor  of  him  "  who  only 
hath  immortality ;  "  that  eternal  life  is  life  eternal,  and 
eternal  death  is  death  eternal,  and  everlasting  destruc- 
tion is  destruction  without  remedy  or  hope  of  resto- 
ration— this  is  the  most  natural,  as  it  is  the  simplest 
reading  of  the  New  Testament. 

And  still  I  do  not  dogmatize ;  I  wait,  and  fear,  and 
hope,  and  trust.  I  am  not  curious  to  know  the  mys- 
tic blessing  in  eternal  life ;  I  would  not  if  I  could 
comprehend  the  awful  mystery  of  eternal  death.  I  am 
more  than  content,  as  a  little  child,  to  leave  the  eter- 
nal future  with  my  heavenly  Father ;  meanwhile 
warning  every  man  to  beware  of  the  delusive  hope 
which  suffers  him  to  postpone  repentance  till  to- 
morrow, and  refusing  to  burden  myself  with  the 
intolerable  horror  of  a  kingdom  of  darkness,  and 
night,  and  sin,  as  eternal  as  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
of  his  Christ 


G«73">s 


CHAPTER    XVII. 


THE     ETERNAL    LIFE. 


SOMETIMES,  in  the  privacy  of  my  study,"  writes 
Rousseau,  "  with  my  hands  pressed  tight  over 
my  eyes,  or  in  the  darkness  of  the  night,  I  am  of  his 
opinion  [that  there  is  no  God].  But  look  yonder  [at 
this  he  pointed  to  the  sky  with  head  erect  and  an  in- 
spired glow]  ;  the  rising  sun,  as  it  scatters  the  mists 
that  cover  the  earth  and  lays  bare  the  wondrous 
glittering  scene  of  nature,  disperses  at  the  same 
moment  all  clouds  from  my  soul.  I  find  my  faith 
again,  and  my  God ;  and  my  belief  in  him.  I 
admire  and  adore  him  and  prostrate  myself  in  his 
presence."  On  which  Mr.  Morley,  in  his  biography, 
comments  as  follows  :  "  As  if  that  settled  the  ques- 
tion affirmatively,  any  more  than  the  absence  of  such 
theistic  emotion  in  many  noble  spirits  settles  it  neg- 
atively." This  comment  of  Morley's  seems  to  me  a 
little  like  that  of  the  culprit  who  finding  himself  faced 
by  two  witnesses  who  swore  that  they  saw  him  steal  the 
shoes  found  in  his  possession,  assured  the  judge  that 
he  could  bring  twenty  witnesses  who  would  swear 
that  they  did  not  see  him   steal  them.     An  affirma- 


192  IN  AID   OF  FAITH. 

tive  testimony  by  one  witness  that  he  perceived   a 
fact  cannot   be    outweighed  by   the    negative    testi- 
mony of  a  hundred  that  they  did  not  perceive  it.     A 
thousand  dullards  who  see  nothing  to   admire  in  a 
sonata  of  Beethoven  cannot  counterbalance  the  ex- 
perience of  one  musical  soul  who  is  entranced  by  it. 
This  is  fundamental  to  all  that  I  have  had    to   say 
in  this  little   volume.     A    mystical    psychology  un- 
derlies it :  the  doctrine  that  man  possesses  a  spiritual 
perception,  a  sixth  sense,  by  which  he  immediately 
and  directly  perceives  the  invisible  world  in  which  he 
lives,  and  to  which  by  many   ties  he  is   indissolubly 
bound ;  by  which  alone  he  perceives  the   truths   of 
beauty  in  nature  and  in  art,  the  truths  of  goodness 
in  character  and   life,    the   moral  beauty   in   men  or 
books,  in  deeds  or  ideals ;  by  which  also  he  sees  and 
knows  God.     This  is  no  "  theistic   emotion,"  it  is  a 
direct  spiritual  perception  ;  and  its  exercise  is  by  no 
means  confined  to  saints.     It  is  a  universal  faculty, 
in  some  men  deadened,  in  others  marvellously  quick- 
ened and    developed,    in    none   absolutely    wanting. 
Some  spiritual  idiots  there  may  be  ;  but  not  more  in 
number  than  the  intellectual  idiots,  nor  so  numerous 
as  esthetic  idiots.     The  spiritual  sense  is  as  universal 
as  the  capacity  for  reason,  and  more   common    than 
the  capacity  for  elevated  taste.     I  have   endeavored 
to  show  that  to  deny  this  faculty  to  man   is   to  deny 
all  basis  for  faith,  not  merely  in   God,  but   in   good- 
ness, in  immortality,  and  in  the  soul  of  man  ;  that  on 


THE   ETERNAL   LIFE.  I93 

the  recognition  of  this  capacity  of  spiritual  discern- 
ment is  built  all  political  integrity,  all  commercial 
honor,  all  domestic  love,  as  well  as  every  Christian 
belief.  Interrogating  this  spiritual  consciousness  for 
its  testimony  as  to  spiritual  phenomena,  I  have  in- 
terpreted its  answers  to  some  perplexing  questions 
presented  by  current  thought :  God  is  the  infinite 
Power  and  the  universal  Presence.  Christ  is  the 
manifestation  and  disclosure  of  this  Eternal  and  Invisi- 
ble Energy  in  a  human  life ;  and  so  a  manifestation 
and  disclosure  of  his  personality,  which,  but  for  such  a 
disclosure,  must  have  remained  forever,  as  Herbert 
Spencer  declares  it,  an  unknown  quality.  This  liv- 
ing Presence,  makes  itself  known  to  us  as  to  Dinah 
Morris,  as  to  Rousseau,  by  unspeakable  manifesta- 
tions to  us  in  our  higher  and  better  moments.  This 
divine  Person  entering  in  us,  takes  from  us,  if  we  are 
but  willing  to  part  with  them,  our  sins,  remitting  not 
always  the  punishment,  but  the  transgression,  and 
perfecting  in  us  his  own  likeness ;  this  he  does  by 
the  impartation  of  himself  through  sympathy,  that 
is  suffering  with  us ;  this  participation  in  the  burden 
of  another  being  the  eternal  condition  of  helping 
that  other  to  bear  it.  The  Bible  read  spiritually  is 
perceived  to  be  a  book  of  promise  ;  and  life,  read 
spiritually  is  discerned  as  its  fulfilment ;  and  we  ac- 
cept the  words  of  the  Book  because  we  are  living  in 
the  enjoyment  of  the  Life.  In  brief,  I  have  en- 
deavored to  interpret  faith  in  God,  in  Christ,  in 
13 


194  IN  AID   OF   FAITH. 

the  Holy  Spirit,  in  the  Atonement,  in  Justification, 
as  spiritual  experiences  rather  than  as  dogmatic  be- 
liefs, and  give  them  a  spiritual  rather  than  an  intellect- 
ual or  philosophical  interpretation.  In  the  two  chap- 
ters on  the  Resurrection  of  the  Dead  and  Eternal 
Death,  I  have  endeavored,  still  following  the  general 
method,  to  show  that  a  spiritual  discernment  of 
Scripture  relieves  the  Christian  creed  of  two  bur- 
dens, one  an  intellectual,  the  other  a  moral  one  ; 
burdens  which  do  not  belong  to  it  and  which  it 
ought  not  to  bear. 

But  this  is  not  all.  There  is  one  other  and  last 
word  to  be  said,  and  one  which  it  equally  oppresses 
him  who  believes  it,  to  utter  or  to  leave  unuttered. 
How  can  he  explain  clearly  that  which  he  only 
sees  through  a  glass  darkly  ? 

God  possesses  the  power  of  directly  communica- 
ting himself  to  the  soul  of  men,  that  is  the  theologi- 
cal truth.  Man  possesses  the  power  of  directly  and 
immediately  receiving  the  communicating  Presence 
of  God,  that  is  the  psychological  truth.  Only  he 
truly  and  spiritually  lives  who  in  the  exercise  of 
this  power  lives  in  perpetual  communion  with  God  ; 
that  is  the  truth  of  spiritual  experience.  Such  a  life 
with  and  in  God  is  called  in  Scripture  Eternal  Life. 
He  who  possesses  it  is  called  an  heir  of  God  ;  not  be- 
cause he  inherits  something  from  God,  but  because 
he  inherits  God  himself. 

Religion  is  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man.     I 


THE   ETERNAL  LIFE.  I95 

mean  this  not  metaphorically,  but  absolutely  and 
literally.  He  dwells  in  us  ;  his  life  becomes  the  seed 
and  secret  of  our  life.  In  this  indwelling  is  the 
secret  of  character.  Character  is  not  produced  by 
heredity — it  is  not  born  of  blood  ;  nor  by  resolute 
purpose — it  is  not  self-made,  not  born  of  the  flesh ; 
nor  by  law  and  teaching — it  is  not  born  of  the 
will  of  man.  True  character  is  born  of  God.  All 
voices  of  God,  in  nature,  in  history,  in  literature, 
in  art,  are  avenues  communicating  it ;  but  the 
one  Word  above  all  others,  so  supremely  clear 
that  all  others  are  but  broken  voices  by  the  side 
of  it,  is  the  Word  made  flesh,  the  Rabbi  of  Gali- 
lee, the  Messiah  of  prophecy,  the  son  of  the  carpen- 
ter, the  Son  of  God,  Christ  Jesus.  In  all  the  long 
line  of  prophets  coming  to  their  consummation  in 
John,  in  all  pagan  prophets  pointing  the  world  to 
the  larger  and  fuller  voice  yet  to  speak,  the  perfect 
Word  was  never  heard.  They  were  but  witnesses 
of  the  Word,  in  whom  and  through  whom  life  is 
communicated  from  the  heart  of  God  to  the  heart  of 
humanity. 

This  Life  is  the  Light  of  the  world.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  our  Protestant  theological  systems 
have  reversed  this  order ;  they  have  made  the  Light 
the  life  of  men.  Conviction  of  the  truth  they  have 
made  the  precursor  and  producer  of  conversion  of 
the  life.  A  sound  theology  they  have  revered  as 
the  mother  of  a  true  religion.     The  creed  is  put  at 


I96  IN  AID   OF  FAITH. 

the  church  porch,  and  by  understanding  it  one  enters 
into  church  life.  But  this  is  certainly  not  the  Scrip- 
tural order,  nor  the  philosophical  order.  In  both, 
Life  precedes  Light ;  we  are,  and  therefore  we  know., 
Flowers  came  before  botany;  home  love  and  life 
before  moral  philosophy ;  the  State  before  political 
philosophy ;  industry  before  political  economy  ;  re- 
ligion before  theology.  Theology  is  the  science  of 
the  divine  life  ;  but  one  cannot  have  a  science  of 
phenomena  before  the  phenomena  exist.  In  the 
history  of  the  church,  church  life  preceded  church 
creeds.  It  was  several  centuries  before  the  earliest 
and  simplest  grew  into  form.  In  the  history  of  the 
individual,  Christian  life  ought  always  to  precede 
Christian  creed — always  will  and  must  if  the  creed 
be  a  real  and  living  faith.  A  child  loves  the  mother 
long  before  he  studies  theories  of  parental  authority 
and  filial  obligation,  and  the  soul  loves  God  long  be- 
fore it  can  comprehend  either  his  nature  or  its  own 
relation  to  him.  No  rules  will  make  an  artist  of  one 
who  has  not  art  life  in  his  soul,  nor  an  orator  of  one 
who  has  no  vital  power  in  himself  to  communicate 
to  others.  They  will  only  make  a  copyist  of  the  one 
and  a  rhetorician  of  the  other.  And  a  creed  that  is 
imposed  on  the  soul  will  only  make  a  Pharisee,  not  a 
Christian.  The  creed  must  grow  out  of  the  life. 
Nay  more  than  that ;  in  vain  the  Light  comes  to  the 
soul  if  the  soul  has  no  Life.  It  shines  there  in  utter 
darkness,  and   the  darkness  comprehendeth   it  not; 


THE  ETERNAL   LIFE.  1 97 

it  comes  to  its  own,  and  its  own  receives  it  not. 
Without  an  eye,  what  use  is  light  ?  without  an  ear, 
what  use  is  music  ?  without  life  in  the  soul,  what 
use  is  truth  ?  The  life  answers  to  the  truth  as  the 
seed  in  the  ground  to  the  spring  invitation ;  and  if 
there  be  no  seed,  the  spring  invites  in  vain,  and  the 
desert  remains  a  desert  in  all  seasons. 

This  truth,  that  God  is  in  us  and  we  in  God, 
through  the  direct,  immediate,  personal,  vital  contact 
of  the  divine  spirit  with  our  spirits  is  repeated  again 
and  again  in  the  Bible,  with  absolute  unchangeable- 
ness  of  doctrine  and  endless  variance  of  metaphor. 
Christ  is  a  garment,  we  are  to  wear  Him  ;  Christ  is 
a  road,  we  are  to  walk  in  Him  ;  Christ  is  a  vine,  we 
are  to  be  grafted  on  Him  ;  Christ  is  a  house,  we  are 
to  live  in  Him  ;  we  are  a  temple,  Christ  is  to  live  in 
us ;  Christ  is  bread  and  wine,  we  are  to  eat  Him ; 
Christ  is  a  husband,  we  are  to  be  married  to  him, 
and  go  to  housekeeping,  living  under  one  roof,  liv- 
ing one  life,  becoming  one  flesh.  Or  if  we  turn  from 
metaphor  we  shall  find  plain  and  simple  declarations 
of  the  truth,  a  truth  so  profound  that  no  philosophical 
form  of  expression  can  ever  suffice  to  utter  it.  I 
quote  but  one  out  of  many  of  Christ's  own  words  : 
"  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  he  shall  give  you  an- 
other Comforter  that  he  may  abide  with  you  for- 
ever ;  even  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  whom  the  world  can- 
not receive,  because  it  seeth  him  not,  neither  knoweth 
him  ;   [that  is,  it  has  no  sensible  demonstration  of  his 


I98  IN  AID   OF   FAITH. 

presence,  and  no  spiritual  experience  ot  him.  Like 
Mr.  Morley's  "  noble  spirits,"  it  has  "  no  such  theis- 
tic  emotion."]  "  But  ye  know  him  [but  do  not  see 
him  any  more  than  the  world  does  ;]  for  he  dwelleth 
with  you  and  shall  be  in  you."  1 

It  is  very  certain  that  in  the  conception  of  the 
New  Testament  writers  that  eternal  life  which  Paul 
declares  to  be  the  life  of  God,  is  not  something 
future.  It  extends  into  the  future ;  and  like  all  life 
it  is  ever  developing  and  increasing ;  for  when  life 
ceases  to  grow  it  begins  to  decay.  But  it  is  a  pres- 
ent experience.  "  He  that  drinketh  my  blood," 
says  Christ,  "  hath  eternal  life  ;"  "  the  gift  of  God  is 
life  eternal,"  says  Paul ;  "  ye  have  eternal  life,"  says 
John.  The  New  Testament  puts  eternal  life  in  the 
present  tense.  It  is  this  life  of  oneness  with  God ; 
life  in  Him,  life  drawn  from  Him.  Eternal  life  is 
to  live  in  Him;  to  be  filled  with  His  fulness;  to 
have  a  companionship  with  the  Father  and  with 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ ;  to  walk  with  Him,  to  be 
transformed  into  His  image. 

This  is  the  secret  and  source  of  that  divine 
consolation  in  and  victory  over  sorrow  which  the 
Bible  promises  to  the  believer.  Many  a  student 
reading  the  ninety-first  Psalm  intellectually  has  been 
puzzled  by  its  promises.  "  Thou  shalt  not  be  afraid 
for  the  terror  by  night ;  nor  for  the  arrow  that  flieth 
by  day,  nor  for  the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  darkness, 

1  Compare  John  xxii.  3  ;  Ephes.  iii.  17-19. 


THE   ETERNAL   LIFE.  I99 

nor  for  the  destruction  that  wasteth  at  noon-day.  A 
thousand  shall  fall  at  thy  side,  and  ten  thousand  at 
thy  right  hand,  but  it  shall  not  come  nigh  thee." 
"  How  is  this,"  cries  the  rationalistic  critic  ;  "  do  not 
the  saints  sicken  and  die  ?  Is  piety  a  protector  from 
cholera  ?  Does  the  devout  man  never  need  vaccina- 
tion in  time  of  small-pox  ?"  Aye  1  the  pestilence 
that  walketh  in  darkness,  and  the  destruction  that 
wasteth  at  noon-day,  enter  the  homes  of  the  godly 
as  of  the  ungodly  ;  and  yet  it  is  literally  true,  literally 
if  one  will  read  both  the  promises  and  the  fulfillment 
with  his  spiritual  perception,  that  they  do  not  come 
nigh  him  who  has  made  the  Lord  his  habitation. 
Men  are  hurt  only  where  their  life  is;  and  calamity 
is  no  calamity  if  it  does  not  touch  a  vital  interest. 
Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton  tells  the  following  story : 
"  Not  long  after  the  Indian  mutiny,  I  was  in  a  rail- 
way carriage,  when  a  comfortable  looking  gentleman 
expressed  the  hope  that  the  evil  deeds  of  the  rebels 
had  been  exaggerated.  A  silent  man  in  the  corner 
of  the  carriage  here  interfered  :  "  They  tied  me  to  a 
tree;  they  killed  my  wife,  my  faithful  servants,  and 
my  children  before  my  eyes."  Then  he  relapsed 
into  silence.  The  comfortable-looking  gentleman, 
by  way  of  being  consolatory,  replied,  "  Oh,  you're 
young  yet :  you'll  marry  again,  very  likely,  and 
have  another  family."  Now  it  is  safe  to  say  that  in 
this  case  the  comfortable-looking  gentleman,  if  he 
had  been  in  the  silent  man's  place,   would  have   felt 


200  IN  AID   OF  FAITH. 

but  very  slightly  the  silent  man's  anguish.  He  did 
not  live  in  the  domestic  affections,  and  could  not  be 
seriously  hurt  therein.  A  man  may  live  so  low  a 
life,  that  a  shame  which  would  kill  a  more  noble 
nature  will  not  cost  him  an  hour's  sleep  or  a  tempo- 
rary loss  of  appetite.  In  like  manner  a  man  may  live 
so  high  a  life  that  troubles  which  infest  and  torment 
his  less  ennobled  neighbor  will  not  come  nigh  him. 
General  Armstrong,  the  unsung  hero  of  Hampton 
Institute,  will  sit  at  the  table,  so  absorbed  in  the  con- 
versation, and  in  the  cause  to  which  he  has  conse- 
crated himself  and  in  which  he  lives,  that  he  does  not 
know  what  is  set  before  him,  and  eats  it  in  entire  un- 
consciousness whether  it  is  well-cooked  or  ill- cooked; 
indeed  he  would  scarcely  know  if  it  were  not  cooked 
at  all.  And  a  burnt  beefsteak  or  muddy  coffee 
which  would  spoil  the  breakfast  for  a  less  absorbed 
enthusiast,  comes  not  nigh  him.  So  it  is  possible  to 
so  live  in  the  spiritual  world,  so  to  make  the  Most 
High  one's  refuge,  so  to  dwell  in  the  secret  place  of 
the  Most  High,  that  the  troubles  which  infest  the  life 
of  those  whose  life  is  in  earthly  circumstance  and  re- 
lation, almost  literally  come  not  nigh  the  God- 
sheltered  spirit.  He  is  stricken  but  feels  it  not, 
wounded  but  is  oblivious.  Like  the  wounded  boy 
who  brought  his  message  to  Napoleon  and  then  fell 
dead  at  his  feet,  he  is  borne  up  by  a  divine 
enthusiasm  which  makes  him  oblivious  and  impervious 
even  to  death  wounds.     In  the  midst  of  the  howling 


THE   ETERNAL  LIFE.  201 

mob  clamoring  with  angry  voices  and  clenched  fists 
for  the  blood  of  their  victim,  Christ  stood  unmoved 
as  the  sunlit  mountain  top  by  the  storm  which 
beats  upon  its  base.  The  execrations  of  the  mob, 
and  later,  the  anguish  of  the  cross  truly  came  not 
nigh  him.  I  despair  of  making  the  mere  rationalist 
comprehend  my  meaning ;  but  the  spiritual  sense 
will  see  more  than  I  can  express. 

This  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  men,  as  it  is  the  ar- 
mor against  sorrow,  so  is  it  the  deliverance  from  temp- 
tation. We  are  most  of  us,  alas !  content  to  live  in 
a  sphere  and  plane  of  life  where  the  wild  beasts  are, 
and  fight  them  there  ;  sometimes  winning  success, 
sometimes  suffering  defeat.  This  is  the  human  way 
of  resisting  temptation ;  it  is  not  the  divine  way. 
That  is  to  lift  the  soul  up  into  a  divine  life,  where  the 
temptation  ceases  to  be  a  temptation,  and  the  once 
attractive  sin  becomes  no  allurement.  "  They  that 
wait  on  the  Lord,"  says  Isaiah,  "  shall  renew  their 
strength  ;  they  shall  mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles." 
We  are  beginning  to  get  a  glimmering  idea  of  this 
method,  and  to  act  a  little,  a  very  little,  upon  it.  The 
Children's  Aid  Society  takes  a  boy  out  of  the  streets 
of  New  York  city  and  sends  him  off  into  the  coun- 
try, into  another  atmosphere,  into  other  fellowships, 
into  another  life.  The  boy  might  have  been  left  in 
the  streets,  taught  in  a  mission  school,  and  battled  his 
way  along  with  sin  and  temptation,  now  rising,  now 
falling;  but  in  the  new  life  his  whole  moral  tissue    is 


202  IN  AID   OF   FAITH. 

changed,  and  after  twenty  years  of  Christian  educa- 
tion he  becomes  an  honest  citizen,  to  whom  the  sen- 
sual attractions  of  the  great  metropolis  would  present 
no  attractions.  He  is  a  new  man ;  old  things  have 
passed  away,  all  things  have  become  new.  It  is  safe 
for  me  to  assume  that  the  readers  of  this  book  do  not 
keep  themselves  virtuous  by  a  perpetual  struggle  to 
obey  the  statutes  of  the  State,  or  even  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments. They  live  a  higher  life,  which  has  also  its 
temptations,  of  a  subtler  kind  ;  but  not  temptations  to 
open  vice  or  flagrant  crime.  Now  it  is  feasible  to  so 
live  in  God  that  the  battles  which  most  of  us  have 
now  to  fight  would  not  come  near  us.  This  I  sup- 
pose is  what  Paul  means  when  he  writes  to  the 
Colossians,  "  Ye  are  dead,  and  your  life  is  hid  with 
Christ ;  "  and  to  the  Romans,  M  Reckon  ye  yourselves 
also  to  be  dead  indeed  unto  sin,  but  alive  unto  God, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  The  nineteenth  cen- 
tury is,  thanks  to  the  Gospel,  dead  to  some  sins  to 
which  the  sixteenth  was  very  much  alive ;  and  chil- 
dren educated  in  Christian  households  are  often  dead 
to  sins  to  which  less  fortunate  children,  brought  up 
on  the  street,  are  very  much  alive.  And  these  ex- 
periences only  point  as  prophets  to  the  higher  ex- 
periences of  such  a  living,  with  and  in  God,  that  all 
temptations  that  beckon  away  from  him  are  as  phan- 
toms which  the  soul  regards  not. 

This  then  is  Eternal  Life;  a  life  rooted  and  grounded 
and  built  up  in  God  ;  a  life  in  and  with  and  by  Him  ; 


THE   ETERNAL   LIFE.  203 

a  life  so  hid  with  God  in  Christ  that  sorrows  come  not 
nigh  to  destroy  him  who  dwells  therein,  and  tears  do 
but  wash  the  eyes  that  they  may  see  the  clearer ;  a 
life  so  full  of  God  that  the  soul  is  dead  to  sin.  To  this 
life  Paul  refers  when  he  says  that  "  God  hath  made  us 
to  sit  together  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus;  "  to 
this  life  John  refers  when  he  says  "  Whosoever  abid- 
eth  in  Him  sinneth  not"  This  is  the  consummation 
of  Christian  experience,  the  last  fruitage  of  faith.  Faith 
begins  by  perceiving  in  Nature  an  Infinite  and  Eternal 
Energy  from  which  all  things  proceed  ;  it  learns  to  see 
this  energy  in  all  phenomena  both  of  matter  and  of  life, 
and  to  know  it  as  the  universal  Presence  ;  it  begins  to 
believe  that  this  Power,  not  ourselves,  makes  for  right- 
eousness ;  it  discovers  special  signs  of  its  goodness 
and  truth  in  the  Book  of  Promise,  manifestations  of  its 
Personality  in  Jesus  Christ,  experiences  of  its  love  in 
the  remission  of  sins,  the  secret  of  its  spiritual  power  in 
the  eternal  law  of  self-sacrifice  for  love's  sake ;  and 
finally  faith  comes  into  personal  and  perpetual  contact 
with  this  Spirit  of  holiness  and  truth,  no  longer 
standing  in  the  Presence  of  an  Infinite  and  Eternal 
Energy,  but  dwelling  with  and  transformed  into  the 
likeness  of  an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Goodness  and 
Love  by  One  whose  Energy  is  as  Infinite  and  Eter- 
nal in  the  spiritual  world  as  in  the  phenomena  of 
the  material  universe. 
And  this  is  Eternal  Life. 


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